Eagles and Skylanders
by Volcanic Grizzly
Summary: When Spyro falls to the Earth from Skylands, he has to find a way home. Unfortunately it's much easier said than done. Spyro and a new ally, Jack, will do everything in their power to find a portal and save Skylands.
1. A New Ally

"Sorry, Dylan, nothing is here," I said as I walked down the warehouse. I have been searching here for 5 hours trying to find something. What I was searching, well I don't even know. I was trying to find something to pin the Dultra crime family on, but nothing was showing. One thing that these guys knew how to do is to hide a bunch of evidence. Even finding this warehouse took a week's worth of work.

"You sure dude? I had to do a lot to get that warrant," Dylan said shouting into his phone. Dylan is a friend and fellow soldier. I known him even before our lives changed. "Yes Dylan, I looked every square inch of this place and nothing is showing," I said still looking around at the mountain of boxes placed in shelves along this whole warehouse.

"Listen I have to go, it's getting late."

"Alright, see yeah."

I pressed the end call button on my cell phone and proceeded toward the exit. As I got toward the door, I noticed a SUV coming in from the distance. It didn't make any sense; the warehouse was in deserted part of the city. Nobody ever came here ever since economic downturn. I soon realized that these weren't ordinary people. I saw them roll down windows and take out guns. These were the Dultras, they will end anyone's lives if they get in there way. Apparently I got in their way.

They started firing gunshots left and right, I ran back deeper into the warehouse looking for cover. I started to see bullet holes appearing all around but none of them met my skin. I went behind a wall and took out my gun. I didn't think it mattered; they were three guys with PM-9 machine guns. I was one guy with a semi-automatic G17 Glock. The odds were against me, but the odds were always against me. I'm the person who always gets the jobs that seem to get me killed, whether they were actually trying to get rid of me or not is up for debate.

Once I was in cover I tried to control my breathing and make as little sound as possible. The three Dultras came in and they didn't decide to split up and they were going my way. It didn't look like there was a way out of this without gunfire. I looked for a way to even the odds. I saw a shelf close to me and it looked light enough to be pushed over. I quickly and stealthily moved towards it. The Dultras didn't see me and kept moving towards the area I needed them. It felt like time was moving slow, seconds felt like minutes and time always liked going from a fast pace to a slow walk. About ten seconds they finally got to the spot. Even though the shelf was lighter than the rest it still took a lot of strength to push it and especially at the right time. Once I pushed it, the ten foot tall shelf came crashing down with all the boxes and random products with it. I made a mad dash towards the entrance and I looked over my shoulder and saw that my plan had failed. One guy fell to the floor and the other two helped him up. I took out my gun and the Dultras did the same. Now came the real gun fight. I went behind some crates and two of them went behind a wall and the other was dumb enough to stay out in the open.

I aimed my gun and delivered the first two shots to the Dultra standing out in the open. One went through his chest and the other went through his shoulder. He dropped to floor and died instantly. The other two began to fire at me; my cover was getting shredded to dust. I went over to the other side of the crate and started to fire back. The two were focused on one side so I was able shoot one of them. I pierced through his head and he dropped to the ground. The other Dultra looked down at his dead friend and he screamed at the top of his lungs. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU KID!" I took out the magazine of my gun and put in a new one. "IF YOU WANT ME, COME AND GET ME!" I shouted. The Dultra picked up the PM-9 on the ground and dual wield his. He then charged towards me, firing at random.

I ran to the back of the warehouse because there was no other place to go. I saw a window above me and I thought I could climb out of it. I shot out the window and attempted to climb through it. As I reached the threshold of the window, gun shots were suddenly above. "Thought you could escape me you little punk." I dropped to the floor and turned myself to the trigger happy Dultra. "I don't know, it was worth a try." The Dultra had one gun pointed straight at me and the other just lay lazily in his other hand. "Don't play smart with me you little bastard. I'll make this quick and easy for you." My gun was holstered at my side. The Dultra never cared to check, I mean he is going to kill me anyways. I looked around me, trying to find something I can use to escape with. What I saw was two liter bottle of water. The water was uncapped and it was my only option. His eyes were trained at mine; both of us just staring at each other. His finger was beginning to pull on the trigger. I immediately grabbed the water bottle and sloshed water at him. I then dived to the ground. Water splashed his eyes and he began to fire gunshots at the wall behind me. I then took out my gun and fired bullets at him. The bullets went into his body and he fell to the floor.

I was worried that my ordeal wasn't over so I ran towards the exit. I've been through a lot. Not just today, but the last four years of my life has been doing things like this: getting shot at, doing death defying stunts, having the barrel of a gun being shoved in my face, and so much more.

I went over the entrance and heard a noise coming from above. It didn't sound like something was on the roof; it sounded like something was falling to the Earth. I don't know why, but I was just standing there, completely forgetting what I was doing. Then all of the sudden, something incased in a ball of fire burst through the roof and collided into the ground. I yelped and jumped back in surprise. I just had to deal with a gang of Dultra killing machines; this was the last thing I needed. I went over to the object that had implanted itself into the ground. It was still smoking from the crash, but yet it felt cool to the touch. I picked it up and at first I thought it was a meteorite, but it looked nothing one. It looked like some strange purple lizard artifact somebody had made in their spare time. To me that seemed like the answer, but why? Who in their right mind make a fireproof lizard with wings, light it on fire, and then shoot it through the roof of warehouse that was owned by a highly armed, criminal syndicate who kills anyone on site? I examined the figurine closely and it didn't look like a lizard, but a dragon. Now that I looked at it closer, it looked like a child's toy, but not made of plastic; more like stone.

"Argh. Hello, where am I?"

I pulled out my pistol and searched around for the source. "Hello is anybody there?" I said shouting into the warehouse. Great now I'm hearing things. "Who are you?" said the mysterious voice. "My name is Jack. It would be great if you would tell me where you are." I said still looking for the source of the noise.

"I'm down here."

"Are you down back into the warehouse?" I said shouting as if he was far away, but he sounded close.

"No. In your hand."

I looked down at my hand and saw the toy. _No it couldn't be, _I thought. "Are you talking to me?" I said to the toy. "Yes," said the toy. I yelped and dropped the toy to the ground. I dropped the toy to the ground and the next thing I noticed was the toy was glowing and getting bigger. I pointed my gun at it, not knowing what to expect. After about 10 seconds the toy stopped glowing. "Argh, did you really have to throw to me to the ground?" Said the angrily the now, fully grown purple dragon. I was mystified. My gapping mouth was to the ground. "Well in my defense, I didn't expect a toy to start growing. Besides what are you?" I said to the talking purple creature. I still did not exactly know what it or he was. "What do you think I am? A dolphin," he said in a very angry, sarcastic way. "Why would I think dolphin? Just tell me what you are and who you are by the way." I said forgetting I still don't even who this thing was. "Ugh, my name is Spyro and I'm a dragon. There, are you happy?" said the mad dragon.

"Yeah I am. Don't have to get mad about."

"Sorry, just kind of been through a lot."

"What happened?"

"Believe me. It can't be fit into a few words. Listen Jack, do you know if there are any portals around here?"

"Um, I don't think there is any portal around here." I said confused as wondering what he meant by a portal.

"Alright, thanks for freeing from whatever prison I was in."

"You're welcome. How did you even get like that?"

"When I was blasted towards your planet I guess the cold froze me."

"So you're not from this planet."

"No I'm not. Nice meeting you Jack, I gotta go. See you around." Spyro said leaving the warehouse. And with that I was trying to figure out a rational explanation of why I saw a talking purple dragon. I don't ever remember taking any weird drugs or going through any strange noxious gas. At first I thought that I was dreaming, but then I remembered when I shot out the glass of the window a piece of glass had cut my skin. I remember feeling some pain, but pain was something you sometimes have to get use to. Next I thought maybe my mind just made all of that up, there have more crazy claims. But then I saw all the damage to the warehouse. Lastly I tried to forget the whole thing and maybe let somebody else try to make sense of this whole thing.

At last I was finally going to the exit, after being side tracked by crazy gunmen and a falling dragon. I was going to call the local police department that I was assigned to and have them deal with the bodies. Right now, all I want to do is to head home. I pulled out my cell phone and was beginning to dial the police department, but I was hearing someone running towards me. I thought it was the dragon, Spyro, so I began to turn around. As soon as my eyes reached the direction of the warehouse, I was tackled to the ground. I heard the large thump of my body as I hit the ground. I looked at the man who was attacking me. It was the last Dultra who I thought I killed, but it turns out 5 bullets don't kill a man. The Dultra was on top of me, his knees on top of my hands so I couldn't fight back. The Dultra's hands were around my throat and he was choking me to death. "I thought you were dead," I said with whatever breath I had left. My voice having a gagging sound. "You should've put more bullets in me," said the Dultra as I was gasping for air and struggling to get out of his hold. I was beginning to fade out of consciousness, seeing white edges in my eyes. At this moment it occurred to me that he could've ended my life by shooting me instead of choking me to death. I never took the PM-9s he had. My only guess to why he hadn't shot me was he wanted me to suffer to death. Have it slow and painful instead of fast and quick. I knew that these were the last seconds of my life, and then I heard more running. At first I thought that it was more Dultras, but I couldn't see much since of the lack of oxygen going to my head. But it wasn't a Dultra, what I saw looked like a purplish, running figure. Next thing I noticed was running figure smashing its skull into the Dultra's back. The Dultra went flying into the wall behind me and the impact left blood splattered on the wall. There was no question that he was dead.

"You alright?" said a concerned looking Spyro. I was still trying to get air back into my lungs. I was breathing very hard. "Yeah, I will be. Thanks," I said still trying to get my breathing back to normal. "Don't mention it; I kind of do that stuff regularly. Do me a favor, don't try and get yourself killed," Spyro said jokingly. "Yeah I'll try," I said. Right now my mind was at a war between what is real and what is not. If everything that just happened was an illusion, I wouldn't be seeing the dragon right in front of my eyes. But the rational part of my mind was still searching for a logical answer of why a meteor crashed through the roof, how I'm seeing a purple dragon, and how I'm still alive. I watched Spyro go around the corner of the block and I was wondering if I was going to see him again.

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"Alright, looks like we're about done here," said the officer. After my near death experience I finally was able to call the department. They weren't really happy about being what they called "a clean-up crew." They also gave me a twenty minute lecture on not following protocol. I protested saying that my job was to help aid in removing the Dultra crime family from Panama City, not to follow their rules. Also if I recall, the FBI told me to get rid of them by "any means necessary". "Okay, so can I head home now?" I asked. It was 6 o'clock at night and it was a two hour drive home to Pensacola. "Yeah, I guess you're done here, but I gotta ask. Why is there a hole in the roof and why did that guy have two punctures wounds it his back?" I wasn't surprised that he asked me that question; anybody would have asked it including me. Although, I rather not be the person that has to give an answer. "Um, I already saw the hole in the roof when I came in. The puncture wounds happened when shelf fell onto him" I answered nervously. There was blood from the Dultra that got trapped under the shelf. "Well, okay," said the cop. The officer seemed to wonder if I was telling the truth, but he didn't seem to care. I went under the yellow tape that the police left on the door of the warehouse, took out the keys to my car, pressed the unlock button, and I opened the door to my car and got in. I started my car and drove off towards home.

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Spyro's POV

I have been walking around for hours trying find a portal or another skylander, but this is a strange planet. Everyone I've seen has been giving weird looks or screamed and runaway. So far I haven't seen many people or found any place to go. I kept walking around seeing signs with written language that I couldn't read.

I walked into an alleyway, seeing if I can get some sort of clue to where I can go, and I saw three people knocking over trash cans. To me they looked like thugs just ruining people's property, but then again it may just be this world's customs. I am not really one to judge other people's ways unless are meant to harm. "Hey Jim look at this dog," said one of the property destroyers. I could smell alcohol coming from his breath, even though I was ten feet away from him. "Dude what's wrong with his face and what the hell is on his back," said Jim, one of the thug's friends. "I'm not a dog and those are wings smart one," I said angrily. I was starting to get mad now, but there was no reason to get into a fight yet. "Did that dog just talk?" said another thug. They started to look like they were gonna get hostile, but so far nothing happened. "This _dog_ can end your life in a few seconds, so if you want to say something to me again, you should choose your words more wisely," I said in a threatening voice; my eyes now glaring down at them. "You know, I don't think I like this doggy's tone," said a thug. "Maybe we should teach him a lesson," added another thug. The next thing these guys did was drop their bottles of their hands, the glass bottles shattering upon impact to the ground. They then all reached into their back pocket and brought out pistols. I knew what they were because of my friend Trigger Happy, but his are made of gold. Theirs looked like they were made of something else. I don't know, couldn't tell from my angle. I really didn't want to have to fight these guys; I rather save my strength for Kaos. "Do you really want to do this?" I asked them. "Shut up dog, let's make this quick," one of them responded. He cocked his gun and I got into a battle stance, being ready for a fight I didn't want to fight.

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Jack's POV

I haven't been driving long, maybe for about five minutes, so I was still in Panama City. It was late at night and vacationers wouldn't be coming here for another few weeks. I drove up next to an alleyway and heard shouting. I looked down the alleyway, but it was too dark to see down the alley. It didn't sound good, I heard people calling somebody, which is one sure way that somebody gets killed. I decided to turn into the alleyway, my headlights shining the whole way down the alley. What I saw was three guys and the same purple dragon I saw earlier, Spyro. At first I was looking at Spyro, still contemplating whether he was real or not, and then I looked over at the three guys. I could definitely tell something was wrong, they looked dizzy and disoriented. These guys are clearly drunk. Then I saw them pointing guns right towards Spyro, but not me. This only proving more that he was real. Unfortunately, now is not the time to choose between what is in the flesh or imaginary. I picked up my gun and blasted through the door of my car, keeping it open for cover.

"FBI, drop the weapons now!" I demanded.

"Last time I checked, there's three of us and one of you. How about we teach you some manners," said a thug.

They were firing gunshots at left and right. I ducked down under the door. Even though they were drunk they still had a good shot. Thank goodness they didn't get the bright idea to shoot at my feet below the door. "Spyro get in!" I shouted towards him. I got up my crouching position and looked over the door and began to fire my Glock at the thugs, covering Spyro. Spyro did exactly as I asked and ran towards my car. I emptied my magazine at them, not many bullets hitting them. I got one of them in the stomach, but missed the other two. Soon Spyro jumped in and got into the passenger's seat. As soon as my gun was out of ammunition, I got back in and slammed the door shut. I saw the bullet holes on my car door. I switched the gears from park into reverse and pressed my foot down on the petal. I heard the tires screech on the way out of the alleyway. The two remaining thugs were still firing bullets at me. One of them managed to take out one of my headlights. When I got back on the road, I switched the car back into drive, turned my wheels left, and floored the petal. We were soon out of sight of the thugs.

"What just happened?" Spyro asked. He seemed pretty calm about what just happened. "You just met one of the most dangerous things on this planet: drunken men with guns. Definitely get shot by those kinds of people more than once," I said.

"Why were they attacking us?"

"They were drunk, Spyro. If it wasn't us they were gonna shoot at, it would've been someone else. They won't remember any of what just happened in the morning."

"What will happen to them?"

"They're drunken guys with guns and one of them has a bullet in the stomach. The police should be picking them up anytime now. Probably won't be seeing them anytime soon." Again I usually don't follow protocol. I was beginning to wondering what I should do with Spyro. I just can't leave him out there. I also just can't keep him as a pet. Then again he can determine what he wants to do. I decided to ask him what he's gonna do, maybe see if I can help him. "Spyro, what are you gonna do now?" I asked him with some concern. "I don't know. I have no idea where the other skylanders are, I don't know where anything is in this world, and I don't even know how to read what anything says here," said Spyro. If he had a worried look, he didn't let it show. "You don't know how to read?" I asked him because I was surprised when he said he didn't know what anything says. "I know how to read my written language, but I don't know how to read yours," said the dragon. I wasn't sure if he had a place to stay tonight, might as well ask him.

"Spyro do you have anywhere to stay the night?"

"No. Why?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to stay at my place tonight. Maybe I can help you look for a portal."

"You don't have to."

"It's the least I could do. You did save my life," I said not forgetting the events earlier.

"Well I guess. I have nowhere else to stay the night. I could use the time to think things over."

At that moment I was happy to help him, even though he was purple dragon from another planet. But something told me that this was going to be the beginning of a long fight with a new ally.


	2. A New Plan

I've been driving with Spyro for what felt like forever even though the most direct way to Pensacola was only a couple of hour drive. I had to a much longer route to make sure anybody wasn't following us; it's a Dultra tactic to attempt to follow a target back to where they live. I didn't want to take any chances. At about 1:00 A.M. we finally arrived back at my apartment. Nobody was up, so it was pretty easy to sneak him in my place. I unlocked my door and I put my gun and badge on the kitchen counter.

"So this is your home?" asked Spyro. He asked looking around at the apartment.

"Yup, this place is heaven on earth," I said sarcastically. My apartment was a dump, not even enough room for a bed. When I first got this place the tile in the kitchen had to be replaced, I had to put in a new refrigerator and stove, I also had to pay for furniture. All of that should've been handled by landlord, but his cheap head makes me pay for everything. I am overpaying for this tiny one room dump as it is. I would move, but I have nowhere else to go.

"Make yourself at home. Want anything to drink?" I asked him.

"Umm, have any water?"

"Yeah I do." I went into the kitchen and got two cups. I filled up one of water, for myself, and I was about to fill up the second cup, but I hesitated. I felt stupid but I didn't know how Spyro took his drinks. Do I put it in a bowl or in a cup? Should I ask him? I decided to ask him, no point in not. "Uhh, Spyro how do you take your water?" I asked him sounding like the dumbest person in the world. "What do you mean?" He said looking confused as if there was some different way water was made here on Earth. "Do you want it in a cup or in a bowl?" I said. I couldn't tell what Spyro was thinking. I don't know why, but I thought he was going to stab me with his horns like he did with the Dultra. "I'll take it in a cup," he answered. I filled up another cup of water and put it on the coffee table in the living room. I sat on the chair next to the couch. Spyro then jumped up onto the couch and began to drink his water.

"So Spyro it would be easier to know how to help you if you could tell me what your problem exactly is," I asked Spyro. I was worried he was going to tell me that he was going to say something like he was sent here to stop some Martian invasion or he was supposed to take over the world and enslave us all. "I don't know where to start," said Spyro. "Then start at the beginning," I suggested. It would be a lot easier to know the whole problem instead of just a fraction of it.

"Well a mad man, Kaos, started attacking Skylands and me and the rest of the Skylanders started to fight back as best as we could. After a while we thought we had the upper hand, but soon his forces overwhelmed us. He then launched some laser at the Core of Light and it exploded. Then the shockwave from the explosion me and the other Skylanders to be catapulted into space. Next thing is we got frozen and got smaller, shrunk down to the size of toys. Then we all fell to your planet. That was the last I saw of them."

"Well that's a story. I'm not sure what I can do about the other Skylanders, sorry. What is a Skylander anyway?" I asked. Ever since I met Spyro he kept mentioning Skylander. I was starting to wonder what he meant by it. "Skylanders are the champions and heroes of Skylands, our duty is to protect our world against all types of evil," answered Spyro. "So you're a Skylander?" I asked. Don't know why I asked, after that story and the events earlier he seemed to be what he called a Skylander. "Yeah I am. I'm not sure what that means right now, Kaos is probably took over all of Skylands by now," answered a discouraged Spyro. Even though he didn't had a discouraged look, something in his voice gave it away. "Listen Spyro if I can get you back, do you think you can handle this Kaos guy by yourself. I can't do anything here from Earth," I said hoping to give him some hope. Kind of frightening to know there is in control of some mad man, ironic his name is Kaos. "Well it's definitely worth a shot; I'll have to comeback for the others later, if I can get back," said Spyro. His mind looked he was wondering what was going on his planet, Skylands.

"Spyro I don't want to make you mad, but you just can't walk out the door and expect people to all welcome arms for you. If people see you, it could get ugly for you and me," I said rather bluntly. A lot of people don't like the idea that there might be more life out there in the universe. Although I guess now there _is _more life in the universe. "So what you're saying is that I just stay here while you go out look for a portal. You don't even know what one even looks like!" he said sternly and angrily. He got up on all four legs and gave a deadly stare. "No that's not what I'm saying. What I'm trying to tell you is that you have to stick by me. You got lucky with those drunk idiots earlier, but go out in broad daylight it could cause mass chaos," I said. Spyro was still mad, but he calmed down a bit. "Spyro I'm trying to help you and I'm telling you the truth. If anything I'm gonna need your help. No need to get mad." He was now less spiteful and sat back down.

"All right, I'm sorry about that. I usually don't get that mad."

"It is fine; I can angry like that sometimes. It doesn't help that I have to live here," I looked around my apartment seeing the ugly, torn wallpaper and the stained carpet in the small living room. "So what does a portal look like," I asked. I got up and went to my laptop which was sitting on the coffee table. I sat next to Spyro and opened up my laptop. "What's that thing?" Spyro asked with curiosity. "It's a computer; I can access the internet with it. It might be able to give us a location of what you call a portal," I said. Spyro was still looking at me with more questions and curiosity. "So what is the internet?" He asked again with raising a brow. "What isn't the internet? Its nickname is the 'Information Superhighway' but now it's basically a place where people watch cat videos or play flash games at work. In our case we'll be using it to look for a portal," I said.

"Huh, kind of weird I guess. Well a portal in a nutshell is a circular shaped rock that has eight notches on it. At the end of each notch is a symbol, the symbols are different for each notch. The symbols represent the elements of the Skylanders and other creatures of Skylands," said the dragon describing what a portal looks like. "What are the elements?" I asked him out of interest. "The 8 elements are Fire, Water, Magic, Tech, Air, Undead, Earth, and Life. Mine is Magic," said Spyro.

I was beginning to wonder what the other Skylanders looked like. I keep imagining a six foot tall green monster that shoots fire out of its hands. I was also alarmed when he said "Undead" was an element, but then again any of them are weird. I typed in the description that Spyro gave me into Google and - not to my surprise - there was no relevant search results. I reread the description "A circular rock with eight notches on it," I said aloud looking at the computer screen. The only way one of these things could've got to Earth is if it fell here: from outer space. I added the word "meteor" into the search box and pressed search. One search result appeared.

"What does it say?" said Spyro. I clicked the link and it opened up the webpage for a museum in some other state. I began to read what it said aloud. "In 1983 a large meteorite was discovered 20 miles outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is one of the largest meteorites discovered in North America measuring 4 meters in diameter and 12.6 meters in circumference. This meteorite has puzzled scientists since its impact to Earth. It has no sign burning upon entrance into atmosphere and has strange engraved symbols. Some people believe markings prove that there is more advance life in the universe, although skeptics say markings were added later. Either way the abnormal meteorite is now located here at New Mexico's Museum of Aerospace and Science." Next to the text was a picture of the meteorite. I turned the computer towards Spyro. "Is this a Portal?" I asked Spyro. Spyro scrutinized the picture and his eyes grew bigger. He looked very excited. "Yes it is! How far is it? Maybe I can fly there," said an excited dragon. "Spyro, it's 1300 miles away. It would take at least a month to get there if you fly. We can take my car there tomorrow," I said. The car had minor damage, which I could fix in an hour. "How long would it take to get there?" Spyro questioned.

"Two days, maybe three. It would depend on what the traffic and the route we take."

"Why can't we head out now?"

"It's one in the morning and I had a long day. Also I need to make some repairs on my car. Besides it looks like you could use some sleep," I said. I saw his eyes drooping and his head laying on one of his paws. "Alright," he reluctantly said. I understand what he is going through; I know what it feels like to do something now, but something holds you back. In his case it would be being here on my planet, when he needs to go save his own. I turned on the TV I had set in the room. The channel it was turned was just rerunning a news show that were on earlier.

"Just now coming in to us, an unprecedented meteor shower has happened over the United States a few hours ago. Usually meteor showers can be predicted, but this is the first one in recent history to be unannounced. Also these meteorites are strangely formed, some people believing to be alien artifacts. Scientists saying around thirty meteors were able to hit the ground, but their impact is spread all over the country. The locations spread from as far east as New York and as far west as Los Angeles. One of the lucky few to get their hands on of these meteorites was gracious enough to stop by for an interview on the streets in front of our building here in Chicago. We now to our street correspondent: Eliza Musil." The news show did some kind of cool transition effect and then it showed the correspondent and the guy with the meteorite.

"Thanks Tom. Two hours ago the man standing next to me, Gary Ledford, had came into contact a meteorite that punched through the roof of his car while he was on his way home from work. You can actually see the hole from where the meteor entered," the camera zoomed onto the car's roof and it showed a hole about the size baseball. "Gary, can you recall the events that happened to you earlier?" The camera focused on Gary Ledford. He looked mid-30s and was wearing a black slate suit. "Well I was on my home from working overtime at my office and I was sitting at a red light. All of the sudden, something had crashed through the top of my car. The loud sound of the meteorite colliding with the roof made me think that it was a gunshot, so I punched the pedal and I veered into the pole in front of your building. After the airbags deployed I realized that it wasn't a gunshot when I saw the rock sitting on the passenger seat next to me. After that I went into your station to use a phone since my cell phone was dead."

"Sir, would you mind showing the meteorite," said the news correspondent.

"Not at all." The guy dug into his coat pocket and brought out the meteorite. It looked like a phoenix. It had a red body, its wings are orange fading into yellow, its feet are yellow, and its underbelly and area around eyes are blue. Once I looked at it closer it also looked like a dragon as well, almost like a mix between the two. "So what do you plan to do with new found meteorite?" asked Eliza.

"Well to be honest, this thing kind of looks like a toy, so I'm planning on giving to my son. He always likes to play pretend," he answered.

The interview continued on and I turned my head towards Spyro. "Is that another Skylander?" I said. Spyro looked like he was filled with rage at the idea at one of his friends was going to be a toy, but he was able to stay calm. "Yeah, his name is Sunburn. He is the only phoenix-dragon in all of Skylands. People keep trying to hunt him down. In fact one of the reasons he joined the Skylanders was for protection," said Spyro.

"Why did people try to capture him?"

"They wanted to take his power, he can actually teleport from place to place. But that guy took something more valuable than his power."

"What?"

"His freedom."

**Thanks for reading. I know I slightly changed what the Portal of Power looks like, I changed it for the purpose of my story. Chapter 3 will be out hopefully by the end of next week. If you like the story please review it and if you have suggestions please message me.**


	3. Origins

**Sorry it took a while for update. Chapter took a lot longer than I thought. **

At around 8:00 A.M. we finally woke up. We both grudgingly awaken, at the moment I felt like I could sleep till the end of time, but I was always used to little sleep. I went to out my car and fixed the dents that the bullets caused in my car door. Since my car was reinforced with enough armor for a tank, the bullet didn't go through. I was also able to replace the broken headlight. After that Spyro and I had breakfast, we had what was ever in my refrigerator. Next I packed a few days worth of clothes. "Are you ready?" asked Spyro. I went back to my closet and I was trying to decide what else to bring. "Almost," I said. In addition to housing my clothes, my closet also is an arsenal. I was trying to decide what "hardware" to bring with me. I probably will have no use for them, but I always take the precaution. It wouldn't be the first time people try to kill me on a trip. I decided to take a couple of assault rifles, a pump action shotgun (no stock), two handguns, and enough ammo for an army.

"You sure you're gonna need all that?" questioned Spyro as he watched me put everything in the trunk of my car from the door of my apartment.

"Probably not," I slammed the trunk into place. I looked around the area to make sure no one was watching. Luckily nobody was here. "Alright it looks clear, hurry up and get in the car." I said to Spyro. He exited my apartment, closed the door behind him, and jumped into my vehicle. I got in the driver's seat and turned the key to start the car. With that we embarked on a long drive to New Mexico's Museum of Aerospace and Science.

I wasn't sure how I could sneak Spyro into the museum. We can't just walk through the door. With the other Skylanders being labeled as alien artifacts, and it being plastered all over the news, it won't take people long to put two and two together that it might be related to the giant meteorite at the museum. So there might be a crowd of people. I would have to figure out a plan later, right now I just want to get out on the road.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Spyro's POV

I woke up a few hours after we left. Jack said it would be a long drive so it would okay to sleep in the seat. When I awaken I looked out the window and saw more buildings and coastline. "Where are we?" I asked.

"We're in some town in Alabama, it is north from where I live. I haven't been here in a long time," said Jack.

I don't think it meant much of me asking since I barely know what planet I'm on. From the looks of it the city was pretty big, larger than some of the civilizations in Skylands. It made me think of the people that live here, not just in the city, but here on this world. How their lives operate, how they get by, and a lot more. While I was pondering this I was starting to question Jack. I know nothing about him. Why am I so quick to trust this guy? I would guess he would be different than everybody else on this planet. He also seems kind of young, about as old as me I would guess.

"Hey Jack can I ask you a question?" I asked nervously.

"What do you want to ask?"

"How old are you?"

"I'm 15. What about you?"

"16," I was surprised to learn that he was that younger than me, but not my much. "Why don't you live with your family if you're that young, unless that's your customs here on Earth?" I wondered why didn't live with anyone. A lot of kids live their families back on Skylands; maybe it's different on this world. I'm guess I would be the exception to that rule since I never known mine. Jack began to look depressed and looked away from me and out to the driver's side window. I obviously hit a nerve. "That's something I don't like to talk about," said Jack after a long period of silence. "Why, did you runaway?" I wondered.

"No I didn't runaway, it's a _lot _more complicated than that."

"Well what happened?"

"In short, my parents decided to throw me out." Jack began to look more depressed, but I decided to press on.

"There has to be more than just that," I said. Jack began to give me a deathly stare.

"You're keep going with this aren't yeah?"

"Yeah, until you give me a reason."

It looked Jack succumbed to my demands. "Just to let you know Spyro, I don't' tell anyone this. Well to truly understand it, you're gonna have to go back in time. Just to let you know this story doesn't have a happy beginning or happy ending." I nodded and let him continue. "About 17 years ago, an international terror organization known as the Bloody Rangers got the idea that they could take over the world. Their campaign for world domination didn't begin overnight. They had to get an army, weapons, and government support. They were able to keep a lot of this information quiet until about 7 years ago, when the CIA got wind of this attempt. The CIA actually got a list of the countries that the Bloody Rangers wanted to take first. One of them was the America, the country you're in right now."

"Why did they want to take over this country first?" I asked him.

"America has one of the largest militaries in the world. If they had taken over the US, another name for America, it would severely have weakened other countries morale. Thus would make it much easier to take over other nations, since their soldiers lose the will to fight. The CIA forwarded this information to our top military leaders. They didn't take this threat seriously and the Bloody Rangers soon had all they need: they had a large number of helicopters, fighter jets, enough guns for everyone in the country, and one of the largest army in the world of five million. Once they had all the men and supplies they needed they took over Argentina; a large country in the continent south of us. It was fast and brutal, slaughtering 5,000 people their first day of their attack. Their government not wanting to see the suffering of their citizens, they quickly gave control of the country to the Bloody Rangers."

"How did they get ahold of all those weapons?"

"Some nations gave the Bloody Rangers support, so they gave them enormous portions of their armies. As for the guns and aircraft, they got it from countries that supported them and illegal arms traders."

"I can't believe anybody would ever support those evil monsters," I said out of rage and anger.

"Some people believe power and money is more important than lives," said Jack. At that moment I thought of Kaos. He and his minions would do the exact same things to get what he wants.

"What else happened?"

"Shortly after the siege of Argentina, the government realized the threat and decided that they needed a team to deal with it so they don't have to. So they told the military to pick four of their best soldiers, to become highly trained, badass commandos. Once their training was complete the four of them went missing. Upon investigation, they found out that the Bloody Rangers had a mole in our government. A month later they found the four of them at the bottom of a river with bullet holes in the back of their heads. Then someone got the bright idea to reopen an old operation; it was named Operation Screeching Falcon."

"What was Screeching Falcon?"

"Operation Screeching Falcon was an old Cold War plan that involved using kids as elite soldiers. The Cold War was basically a war of words against another country, there was no actual war. The US was looking for any way to get a leg up against the Soviet Union: the country we faced in the Cold War. The problem the generals who came up with Screeching Falcon never could get support from Congress, so the Operation was shelved and never put in use. When the Bloody Rangers were done with Argentina they were starting to come up a plan on the US. So a few corrupt military leaders thought it was necessary to use something the Bloody Rangers would never expect. That was where Operation Screeching Falcon came into play. Nobody signed off on it, except for generals who didn't have power to authorize it, so it was an illegal black op. One of the op authorizers had access to the draft lists, when you turn 18 you have to sign up for selective service which is required by law, this way they could eliminate what people _not_ to use. After that they basically got a list every child's name in America and basically drew one out of the hat."

"I'm guessing your name was the one drawn," I said. I felt sorry for him, his life changed at the luck of a draw.

"Yeah, but wait it gets better. After they picked me, they chose to add three of my friends."

"Why?"

"They wanted people that I could trust. I guess people who would hate the people who changed my life as much I did."

"When did your life change?"

"Four years ago. That memory will always be scorched in my mind," I was obviously making him open old wounds, "It was just a normal day at school, going to the same classes that nobody liked to go to. I was in the sixth grade, still trying to get used to middle school. It was the end of school and I was running late for the bus. As I exited the school, I remember somebody putting me in a choke hold and putting a syrette in my throat, and then everything went black. The next thing I remember is waking up in some kind of dark room. My hands were bound together and I remember not being able to move, no matter how hard I tried. It was like my brain was sending signals to my muscles, but they refused to move.

"I saw my friends: Dylan, Dayton, and Alex. They were all in the same situation I was in; lying on the ground, hands tied together, and not being able an inch. All of us were scared, for a while I thought this was just a sick twisted prank, but it was nothing even close to that. A few hours the anesthetics wore off and we were able to move, but they really didn't make much difference because the exit was locked shut. Soon after a man came in and basically said the only way we would live is if we trained and fought. I never learned his real name, everybody called him Kicker.

"The next six months were pure hell. We barely ate and sleep became a luxury. Not once we were allowed to even speak or write to our families. We learned how to shoot with precision, hand-to-hand combat would become a new skill etched into our bodies, and explosives would become a new best friend. Each of us learned skills individual to us. They said I was good leader and that I was the best at close combat. Dylan became a medic, he's probably even better than some doctors. Dayton learned a very wide arrange of skills, he learned how to fix things while people were shooting bullets at him. He became a master at long range shooting, thus becoming a sniper. Kicker even requested that he learn how to fly a jet. Although they never gave him permission to fly in something like an F-16, but he can basically fly any airplane on Earth. Alex liked to use heavy weapons and rocket launchers when we were training. If it wasn't the biggest weapon on Earth he would never used it.

"After our, if you want to call it training, Kicker sent us out with barely any equipment and cut all contact with us. All he did was give us an assignment and sent us on our way. We were supposed to assassinate the leader of the Bloody Rangers. The thing was they had no information on who he was, so we couldn't just go to where he was hiding. Also only a top few Bloody Rangers actually know he was. They had a weird system that I'm not going to get into. The first day of the mission, we actually thought we were free. We would've gone to the police and finally be able to go home. Kicker would have gotten dishonorably discharged and would be in prison for the rest of his life, but things didn't work out like that. The Bloody Rangers learned about Screeching Falcon and our first day we walked into their trap.

"We were going to a restaurant to see an informant. I hoped that we would be able to find some lead, some sort of starting point. When we got there, it had a strange aura about it. Everyone was looking at us and looked like they were in a hurry. We found our informant, but it turns out he set us up. He pointed a gun at us and so did everyone else in the room as well. Luckily we were armed as well. It was a brutal gunfight, but we survived. That was when I learned that it wouldn't be easy, they were serious about their goal and they weren't gonna let my friends and I stand in the way. The Bloody Rangers doesn't care who lives or dies, never cared about killing four kids. That day, they also began their invasion into America. So a lot of them came gunning for us. It took another six months to finally complete our job. After that the Bloody Rangers world domination plans were failed, and the nations that were occupied by them were liberated. After it was over, the mission was called Green Lightning since it had no official name. We went around the world: from here to Guatemala, Argentina, France, and somewhere near Pakistan."

"I don't know where any of those places," I interrupted.

"Well don't worry about them. After our job was finished, we were able to return home, but at a price."

"What happened?"

"During Green Lightning, we did many things that are considered illegal. The military realized that they could use us, so they organized a deal with us. We would get a full pardon of all crimes if we would accept to become a military asset. If we accepted we would waived on most of the age restricted laws such as driving or owning firearms. We would also be considered a part of both the FBI and military. We didn't have a choice, if we didn't agree we would go to prison for the rest of our lives. Another thing that the contract stated was that we were also allowed to assemble our own team. Add more of my friends to the list. Everyone would be applied to the contract, except they don't have to worry about going to prison."

"So you were doing the same thing as Kicker. Using kids for soldiers, the same reason you hate him."

"The difference is they volunteered and I always give them the option to back out. They're actually allowed to see their family during their training, and theirs doesn't last six months. The team was dubbed ESTF. It stands for Eagle Strike Task Force, but I always just called it Eagle Force. They have a lot guts, they choose to put their lives before others. We all have our own reasons for joining. Some people, like me, have to do it. The others aspire to join the military when they grow up, feel like they have to prove something, or want protection for their family.

"Eagle Force is a private contracting group, some people call us mercenaries, but we always try and choose what jobs we do. We're always hired by the government, sometimes other countries, and wealthy individuals. In a lot of cases we do missions for free, like if a friend or family member is in trouble. The kinds of jobs are: search and destroy, hostage rescue, private security, and a lot more. Then they're jobs we have no choice to do. The jobs Dylan, Dayton, Alex, or me get assigned from the FBI or the government give us. Because of the deal we made, we don't have a choice to back out of. Those are usually the high risk, low reward jobs. Sometimes we get certain death assignments that yield no results. In those situations I always try to make sure we just use the four of us, but it's not always the case."

"How many people are in ESTF?"

"There are 15 of us including me."

"Why do you take those extra jobs if you have the choice not to do them?" I asked. There was a long moment of silence. Jack looked at the road in front of us while he was trying to sum up an answer.

"The jobs that I do are ones that innocent lives are at risk. I go outside the boundaries of the law to make sure the innocent don't get harmed or perish. Also in order to do that, I have to pay for equipment and weapons. So in order to get resources I have to take on more jobs and put more of my and the rest of Eagle Force's lives at risk," There was another moment of silence. "That was reason me and the rest of my family started to drift apart."

"What do you mean?"

"The reasons for my parents wanting to move out didn't develop overnight. When Green Lightning was over, and I finally returned home, things just were never the same. At first my family was thrilled, but their enjoyment didn't last long. Things didn't start to go downhill until me and my brother, Aiden, got into arguments all the time. Initially he complained that I was able to start driving before him, since he was a couple years older than me. Then when he started driving, he was so irritated that I had a new Mustang, while he got a car older than he is. He didn't pay a dime for his and it took me a month to get the money for mine. I never asked my parents for money and he gets his car for free. Shortly after me and my brother drifted apart, my parents just stopped talking to me. They couldn't take the stress of wondering I am all the time or if I was even alive. Sometimes I would be gone for days at time doing some assignment. At dinner, they act like there's a ghost at the table. When we're eating they never ask me anything or even make eye contact. I remember sitting there and seeing the rest of my family talking, laughing, and having a good time, while I just sit there eating. To them, I've died a long time ago. Eventually they reached a point that they couldn't handle. They knew everything about the contract, so they knew that I could live on my own. They just asked me leave, like it was no big deal. They were waiting for me after one day after school and dropped the bombshell. Their tone wasn't forceful, but it didn't show any sign of remorse."

"Wow that is a lot more complicated"

"Yeah I know."

"When did your parents ask you to leave?"

"A few weeks ago."

"Do you ever want to go back home?"

"Every day. Now you know why Spyro, don't ever bring it up again." Jack said boldly and sternly.

"But—"

"Don't ever bring it up," said Jack staring at me.

"Okay fine. Where are we now?" It has been a while since I last asked.

"We're about to head into Mississippi," said Jack. I don't know why I keep asking, I really need a map of this planet.

Why he gave me his life story? I don't know, maybe he did it so I wouldn't ask any more questions. Kind of sucks that his childhood and family was taken away from you. Then again, I never knew my family. I never had any brother or sister to hang out with or get into fights with. All I know is that I'm come from some special line of purple dragons, but as far as I know, no other purple dragons live on Skylands. I remember very little of the land I came from. I guess Skylands would be my true home, but if I can't get back to Skylands, I'll have no home.

**Thanks for reading. If you like it, please review. If you have suggestions please message me. Next chapter should be soon.**


	4. Changing Proposals

Jack's POV

"Glad to see you're finally up," said Spyro as he walked out onto the balcony. We arrived in Santa Fe late last night and nearly every hotel in the city was filled up. It's almost Memorial Day weekend and everybody in the country is going on vacation somewhere. Right now over 95,000 people are visiting Santa Fe. It took hours, but I was able to find a room available. Too bad nobody told me that it's $400 a night. Although, you do get what you pay for. A suite on the top floor certainly does have its perks: great view of the mountains, great beds, and great space. I wish I could stay again, but we gotta job to do.

"Are you ready to head out?" I asked. I'm glad my job is almost done; I rather not get arrested for harboring an alien. I'm not sure if that's even illegal. "Yeah, but this don't make me fly off the balcony." In order to sneak Spyro up here, he had to fly up here in the dead of night. He wasn't happy that he crashed his head into the guard railing. "Relax, you only fell about 10 feet," I jokingly said. "If I hadn't caught the air I would be splattered on the ground. Anyway, do you know how you can get me in to the museum," said Spyro.

"I do, but you're not going to like it," I said nervously. Spyro was staring at me and backed away a little bit.

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"I hate this so much."

"Shut up and quit your whining," I whispered in an angry voice. I'm going to admit that this idea wasn't good or smart, but it was all I could think of in a short amount of time. "I could be walking you like a dog; it was either that or this." I whispered to my back. What I did was have him jump up onto my back and put a coat on over him. His claws were stabbing into my shoulders and lower back. "Ugh, fine," said the complaining dragon. I was walking up the steps into the museum, and, to my surprise, it was packed with people. I went through the revolving doors and stood in line waiting to get a ticket into the museum. The line took its time, after about 10 minutes I was at the front of the line.

"So what brings you here?" asked the ticket seller. She was about my age, maybe 16. I guess that she was doing this as a summer job. "I'm meeting a friend here, he has been dying to see that huge meteorite you have here," I replied.

"Why does your friend want to meet you here?"

"I don't know, but trust me he can be very annoying. The only thing I don't do for him is chew his food," At the moment I felt a sharp pain in my back and a snickering laugh, "Argh."

"Are you okay, sir?"

"Yeah I am fine, just, uhh, a muscle spasm."

"Well I'm sorry to say that part of the museum is closed for construction. They're putting in new security cameras because of the surge of visitors, and they're also putting in additional items for the exhibit. Construction should be done by Monday."

"Can you hurry up!" shouted an angry father. I looked behind me and saw him, his wife, and two kids waiting to get in. Today was Thursday and Spyro would get angry if he had to wait another four days. I turned my head back to the ticket taker. "That's okay," I said. I paid the $20 to get the ticket and proceeded toward the gate beside her. Next to the gate was a security guard making sure people paid to enter. I handed him the ticket and tore it into two. He gave me one part and dropped the other half into some box. He then opened the gate and let me enter.

The museum was divided into 4 areas. One area being the main lobby and housing all the entrances into the other areas. All the other areas are exhibits of different kinds. The one that we needed to go to was named _Oddities of the Universe_. Outside the entrance to the area was maroon, velvet rope and a sign saying "Area is Closed for Maintenance. We Are Sorry for Any Inconvenience."

"How are we gonna get in there? I'm not waiting till Monday," said Spyro.

"Keep it down. Just give me a minute," I said getting looks from people near me. I went to velvet rope and looked at the exhibit. It looks like the museum employees moved whatever stuff they could and covered the items in clear plastic too big to move. The exhibit was filled more than enough equipment to install security cameras: forklifts, jackhammers, power tools, etc. It looked more like they were mining for gold. The place was empty for the moment, but I hesitated on going into the exhibit with the fear of walking into the workers.

I looked around the area and saw the familiar portal I saw online a few nights ago. It was stuffed into the far right corner of the exhibit. This makes it a lot easier on me since I don't have to worry about getting spotted, unless people have the sudden urge to go stare at closed exhibit.

"Are you just gonna stand there all day?" said a construction worker. I looked over to my right and saw a group of the workers eating and having lunch. That would explain why the place was empty of people. I remember before coming in seeing other construction workers eating lunch, but this group of three decided to stay inside. "There's no law saying I can't," I replied. If I was going to get in I have to do it now. This is the only time of day the exhibit would be empty, and I was pretty sure that there lunch would end soon. "Go stare at something else," he commanded. I decided to stay, if I can get them away, I can get into the exhibit.

"And what happens if I stay here?"

"Do you really want to do this kid? Now runoff to your mommy and tell her that you're a little too big for your breeches," he said.

"What is this, the 1990s? You can think of something better than that. Can I ask you a question? Is the reason why you wear a wife beater to escape the fact that no woman will ever love you?" I said with the sole purpose to get him mad. I saw him clench his fists and a blue vein pulsing on his forehead.

"Kid I definitely had more girlfriends than you will ever have," said the construction worker with anger in his voice.

"I've definitely had more than zero," I said. This time I could feel the rage coming off of him.

He came closer and got into my face. "If there wasn't anybody around, I would smash your skull into the wall," he said in a lowered, enraged voice.

"Just to let you know I have no problem of making a grown man cry, too bad all I see is a overgrown crybaby," I said in whispered tone.

"Okay that's it!" he shouted. He raised his fist and was beginning to swing at my face.

"Dave let it go!" said one of his friends as he restrained the person about to bash my face with his fist. "Come on, let's go," said the other friend.

The three of them left and didn't bother to look at me. A few people witnessed the events and asked me if I was okay. I said I was okay and they let me be. Soon everybody was minding their own business, and I was able to quickly sneak under the rope.

As soon as I was in a spot where people couldn't see me, I took off my coat and Spyro jumped off my back. "Do you think it was a good idea to make him mad like that?" said Spyro.

"It was the only thing I could do to get rid of those guys, unless you wanted me to get them arrested or in a hospital?"

"No that's okay."

We walked over to the corner where the portal was located and I took off the large plastic covering. "Wow it looks at lot bigger in person," I said. I noticed one of the symbols started to glow a faint purple, the symbol sort of looked like a star or an asterix.

"I guess that this is goodbye, Jack," said Spyro.

"For now at least," I said.

"But until then, see yeah."

I turned around and started walking towards the main lobby. I heard Spyro jump up onto the portal. I'm going to admit, I'm gonna miss him. He saved my life, and I will always feel like I owe him an endless debt. I don't take something like that lightheartedly. It would've been pretty cool to see him in combat, but I don't want to start another fight for that reason. Maybe I'll see him in the future, but at the moment he has a war to fight, while I have wars to fight of my own. I looked over my shoulder, and saw the dragon glow and disappear into thin air, but all that was in my head. Instead, all I saw was the dragon standing on the cold, hard rock and the portal not doing a thing.

**Thanks for reading. Sorry for short chapter, it wasn't intended to be long. If you like the story, please review it. If you have any suggestions, message me.**


	5. Introductions

**Sorry it took a month to update. When I was done writing the last chapter I took a few days off writing. After my break I went back to writing, but then school started. This limited my time writing. Then about a week ago I finally finished the chapter, but then my internet turned off. Finally it came back on.**

"What do you mean the portal isn't working?!" I shouted at Spyro.

"Don't you think I would tell you if I knew?!" he shouted back at me.

We have been fighting for five minutes because the portal that Spyro said would work didn't. "Jack this arguing is getting nowhere. I have never asked you to do anything, and you're mad at me," said Spyro. He was right, it was getting us nowhere. Whenever I get mad I always start fighting for no reason, at least this time I don't have my gun. "You're right, I'm sorry. If you still want me to help you I will." I looked over to the entrance to this part of the museum, someone has had to hear this stupid feud, but luckily no one did. "Right now I don't think I have a choice," answered Spyro.

"Alright, jump back up on my back," I said as I took off my coat.

"No way, it reeks of sweat under that thing."

"Well what do you expect? It's nearly a hundred degrees outside."

I looked around the area trying to find another way out of the museum. I saw an emergency exit, and it looked like a good way out. The only problem is if I use it, it might activate all the alarms in the museum. I'm not sure if the power was still activated in this area. "Only one way to find out," I said to myself. Spyro and I walked over to the fire door and I began to carefully open it, praying the alarm didn't sound. I kept pushing the door until I heard the "click" that signaled the door hinge was completely off the door, and, to my relief, the alarm didn't sound. Something told me that the museum was breaking a bunch of laws. I opened the door until there was enough room for the both of us to exit. As soon as we both were outside, I slowly put the door back into place. We both hugged the wall and went towards the front of the museum since that was where the main road is. The museum was close to the hotel so I decided not to drive. We were at the far, right corner of the museum and I peered over the corner and saw people entering and exiting the museum.

"The hotel is about a quarter mile passed the intersection. Think you can fly there? It's gonna be too much of a risk if you walk there with me." I said to Spyro.

"I rather fly anyway," he said as he began to fly away.

I started to casually walk back towards the hotel. Spyro and I had to come up with an idea, but this isn't something you can make up off the spot. Then again, how can I think of anything? I know nothing of these so called portals. The dragon has to be the person to come up with something; I'll just see what I can do to help.

I got back to the hotel about 5 minutes later, and I walked up to the receptionist. I'm not sure how long we are gonna stay here in New Mexico, but something told me it would be more than a day. "How can I help you?" she said. "Hi, last night I came and got a room and I thought it was only gonna be one night, but it turns out I'm gonna stay here a bit longer," I said to her.

"Alright, what is your room number?"

"1204."

She started typing on her computer. "I'm sorry sir, but that room is going to be reserved for the next 2 weeks," she told me.

"Are there any rooms left here?"

She did more typing on her computer. "Nope. Sorry I can't help you any further."

"Are you serious?! Could you at least check to see if there are any rooms left in any other hotels in the city?" I said in a sort of shock. I always heard of hotels being booked up, but it's hard to imagine that many people decided to stay at this one hotel. "Alright I can see," she started typing and clicking again on her computer, "The nearest available hotel is in Tucumcari. Would you like me to reserve it for you?"

"Isn't that 200 miles from here? No thanks, I'll figure something out," I said. Something told me she was lying, but I wasn't in the mood to argue, and I can't afford to drive 400 miles a day by driving from Santa Fe and Tucumari. I looked at a sign next to her desk; it said "Check-In 3:00, Check-Out 1:00." I looked at a clock next to the sign it said the time was 11:30. Great an hour and a half to figure something out.

I walked over to elevator and pushed the button to go up. The elevator opened and I pushed the button that said 12. It took me up to the 12th floor and I exited the elevator. I went to my room, and slid the card through the lock. The light next to it turned green, and I entered the room. I saw Spyro sitting on a bed watching some T.V. show. I remember forgetting to turn off the T.V. before we left. "I don't get it? Why are there people randomly laughing in that guy's house" said Spyro. The show was about a typical kid in high school. His parents run some travel agency, so he travels all over the world. His sister is a stereotypical emotional high school teenager who keeps trying to get some different guy each episode. The name of the show was called _My Insane Life_. "It's a sitcom; the laughter is there just to tell you when something funny just happened. It's basically a staple of television," I said. I remember I used to watch that show with my family.

"Why?"

"I don't know. Blame the inventors of television."

I sat down on a chair next to the beds. Spyro looked calm, didn't look like he was mad that the portal didn't work. "So do you have any ideas?" I asked. I didn't have any clue of what we can do next. "I've been thinking about that. I don't know why the portal isn't working, but I know someone who might," said Spyro.

"Who?"

"Drobot. He's the smartest of all the Skylanders. If all of the Skylanders did fall to this planet, he's bound to be somewhere in the country. If we can find him, he might know how to fix the portal."

"There's a problem, we have no way of finding him and we have to leave the hotel in 90 minutes. Unless you know a way we can him."

"I also thought of that. Why don't you try asking Eagle Force to find him?"

I paused at that question, and began to think about Eagle Force getting involved in this mess. I wanted to keep them as far away as possible from this. It was difficult enough to keep them from finding out about me being on the other side of the country. I had to put all my other obligations aside to go take this dragon to a portal. That was all I was planning to do, but now I have to help him find some other Skylander. It was supposed to be just _me _to help Spyro; I didn't want to get anybody else involved, especially Eagle Force. But we have no other plan, and I don't have the resources with me to find Drobot.

"Are you sure you don't have another plan?" I asked.

"Unless you can find him yourself."

"Alright, I'll call a friend, but first we're gonna need a description of him and general location."

"I don't know where he landed."

"Don't worry; I think I can figure that out." I picked up my cell phone off the end table and opened up the phone's internet. Since the oddity of the meteorites, somebody is bound to post a map of all the impact locations. This will give me a general area. With that information; I can pass it on to my friends who can find Drobot's exact location. Within a few minutes I found a map of the United States that had all areas where the Skylanders landed. To my luck, the map also contained pictures of all the meteorites. The pictures of the Skylanders were placed on where they landed.

"Tell me what Drobot looks like." I said while zooming in on the map.

"Well he's a green and brown dragon, that wears a robotic suit," Spyro answered. Now I'm beginning to wonder which planet has better technology: Earth or Skylands.

I kept scrolling all across the map; the range of where they landed was enormous. They landed in all four corners of the U.S. I saw seven of the Skylanders landed in or around Los Angeles, four of them landed near New York, and one, Sunburn, in Chicago. The rest were scattered all across the middle of the country. I scrolled across to the area where I found Spyro, there was an image that said "No Picture Available." I saw elves, more dragons, a ghost, a bunch of more species that I thought just mythical creatures. Then I saw a green, robotic suit wearing dragon. I turned my phone towards Spyro. "Is this Drobot?" I asked. He examined the picture closely. "Yeah, that's definitely him," he said. I looked at the location, and to my surprise, it was located near the Caja del Rio trails. That is about only 20 miles from here. Unfortunately, the picture signaled that somebody already found it, but it's a location. I saved the picture of Drobot to my phone.

"So you know where he is?" questioned Spyro.

"I know the area where he landed, but I don't know where he is now. Someone probably found the meteorite now. At least he landed close by, that might mean that same person might be close by," I said.

I went to my contacts on my phone and pressed the name of the person of who I wanted to call. "Dylan is not going to like this," I said to myself.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Domino's POV

We were at some park near the beach going over the plan for our mission in London. We were hired by the UK to capture some rouge MI-6 agent who was selling secrets to dangerous organizations. The British government didn't want to get involve with this, so they decided to hire Eagle Force. Our orders are to attempt to capture him alive, but they said wouldn't matter if we had to use lethal force. Unfortunately, those same dangerous organizations he sold secrets to, are also protecting him. So it would be a battle to get to him, and to get out. We were going to be flying to London on Wednesday.

"Instead of trying to make this more complicated than it has to be, why don't we just blow a hole in his house, and go in and get him." I suggested. Dylan was thinking that we should wait until he's out on the road, and then try and get him, but we would be to exposed gunfire and put civilians in the line of fire. "Because his house is 3 stories, and guards are posted there 24/7. Plus we won't know what room he is in. With my plan we'll have the element of surprise –"

"And we won't have that with my idea?" I interrupted

"If you would let me finish, we also would have a quicker escape. Next time you come up with a plan, make sure it's airtight!" he yelled. I could see the anger build up in him. Everyone knows he has been a bunch of missions more dangerous than this, but this mission was important to him.

"Dylan, calm down. Even you should know your plan isn't even close to airtight. The guy travels in an armed convoy. He has 20 people with at all time, and we're only bringing 8 people to London. Also you expect us to drive up to Manchester so we can hand this guy over to government, what makes expect they don't ambush us. And this guy disappears off the map on Friday, so we're only gonna get one shot at this. Stop complaining about Domino just because he's new to this," said Ray Ammos, a fellow member of Eagle Force. Ray is basically in charge of getting the bulk of our weapons. People like to overcharge us with guns; Ray usually can get them reduced at price. Also Ray is good with big, dangerous weapons like Alex.

My real name is Dominic Knott. Domino is just the nickname I got when Jack mispronounced my name in 1st grade, after that everybody just started calling me Domino. I'm pretty new to Eagle Force; I only joined a few months ago. Jack asked me to join because he said I was the stealthiest person he'd ever seen. I guess that was the reason I always won hide-and-seek games when I was little. I haven't done many missions because Jack and Dylan said I haven't had enough training. I asked the other members of Eagle Force, and they said they had to go through the same thing. The reason why I'm doing this mission is because Dayton said I was improving immensely. Since Dayton is one of the "founding members" of Eagle Forces, his word carries a lot of weight. Dylan really didn't want me to come, so they comprised by saying I would help by giving sniper support from a far distance from where we ambush the target. I'm not the best sniper on Eagle Force, that title would go to Kim, but I'm definitely one of the better ones.

"Alright, I'm sorry Domino," Dylan said sarcastically at me. "Are you happy Ray?"

"Yeah sure I am, Dylan," Ray said sarcastically back at Dylan.

Usually Dylan isn't such a pain to work, but everyone on this mission knows why he's acting like this. The MI-6 agent was someone who gave crucial information to the Bloody Rangers that helped them attack America so quickly. That's why Dylan, Dayton, and Alex are coming on this mission. Jack usually has to authorize missions before we go, but since nobody has seen him in days, Dylan gave the go. The leadership is in Eagle Force is that Jack is the commander, while Dylan is the second in command. Although, conflicts sometimes arise between the both of them.

Dylan was looking down at the maps and papers filled with information when his cell phone began to ring. He took the cell phone out of his pocket. "Hold on I have to take this," he said. He went behind the tree, but everyone could hear the conversation who he was talking to. He really needs to learn to turn down the speakers on his phone, it always sounds like his speakerphone was on.

"I was starting to think you were dead," said Dylan as he was talking into his cell phone.

"Believe me I'm surprised I'm not," said the person who he was talking to. "Who is it?" shouted Ray.

"It's Jack," answered Dylan. Dylan returned to his conversation with Jack.

"Where are you at? Nobody has seen you in a while."

"I'm in New Mexico."

"Why are you there?"

"I'm here doing a job for client."

"And you need me to come down there and help you."

"Not exactly, I've been hired to find one of the meteorites that fell down to Earth a few days ago. It was stolen off the land of the client, and he wants it back." Everyone was surprised to hear that reason why Jack went missing for days was to find a meteorite.

"So you put off the Dultra job to find a stolen rock? That sounds like a job for the police, not for a trained soldier."

"Those _rocks_ are worth thousands of dollars. Listen, I need help to find the meteorite."

"So you want me to go door-to-door and ask people if they stole a meteorite."

"No, can you get me an address of where it is?"

"Not right now. I'm sort of busy. Tell me the information, and I'll forward it to someone."

"What are you doing?"

"Umm, something with my family." I took notice at the huge lie Dylan gave him. If Jack knew about this mission, he would definitely be irate. Then again, Jack never said anything about his trip to New Mexico.

"Alright, the meteorite landed on a Caja del Rio trail in Santa Fe. I'll text you picture of the meteorite. "

"Okay. Jack I have to go."

"Alright, see yeah."

"Bye."

Dylan ended the call, and a couple of minutes later the picture got to his phone. Dylan than sent the picture and the information via text message to another member of Eagle Force who wasn't going on the mission. Everyone then began to argue again on what strategy is best for us for the snatch-and-grab in London. I have bad feeling in my stomach that Jack's mission was going to a lot more dangerous than ours.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Jack's POV

I have been flipping through the channels on television finding nothing worth watching, while Spyro was taking a snooze on the other bed. It has been an hour since I have talked to Dylan. I looked at the alarm clock on the end table; the time said 1:05. I know we'd have to leave here soon, but if I have to pay $400 for one night, I'm gonna get my money's worth.

My cell phone was lying next to me on the bed. It started to ring, and I picked it up and saw who was calling. It was Amber Miller; she was the first person to join Eagle Force after Operation Green Lightning was over. She was shocked when I asked her to join a few years ago. Nobody ever really thought that about Eagle Force getting bigger, even I was still skeptical about idea. This was only after about five months we got back. She is in charge of recon and surveillance. She is doesn't like bringing people on recon missions because it's a lot harder to find one person than it is to find four.

I answered the call. "Hey." I said into the phone.

"Hey Jack, I might have a location of the meteorite you're looking for," she said.

"Great."

"I was able to call one of the caretakers for the trail, and I figured out the name of the person who took the meteorite: Lisa Huller. It turns out she goes there very often and the guy said she found the meteorite. I was also able to get ahold of some of her personal information. I learned that she has a safety deposit box and bank records say last time she visited was two days ago."

"Awesome Amber! What's the name of the bank?"

"Henderson Bank and Trust. It's located on 1034 Embers Blade Avenue." I knew that the street was on the other side of town.

"Thanks Amber, I owe you one." I was about to hang up the phone, but then Amber started to speak.

"Jack, this really sounds like the police could've handled this problem. If I could find the information this easily, they could've got it done in less than 10 minutes. Be honest with me, why do you really need this meteorite," she said in a concerned tone. I contemplated for a second about telling her the truth. I hate lying to my team, my friends. They put their trust in me and in return I lie to them.

"Amber if I tell you why, you wouldn't believe me for one second. And, trust me, you don't want to get involved in this," I said.

"But what if I want to help?"

"If it comes to that, I'll call you first."

"Alright, Jack please be careful."

"I'll try."

She hanged up her phone first. I tossed the cell phone on the bed, and turned off the T.V. I was mad at myself for not telling the truth to Amber. "Spyro get up," I shouted. Spyro's eyes opened, but his body didn't move. He acted like a teenager getting up to go to school; I'm so glad it's summer vacation. "What?" he grudgingly said. He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. "I might have a location on Drobot," I said. This seemed to get him up, and moving around. "Great, where is he?" he asked. He got off the bed and began to stretch his muscles. "He might be in a safety deposit box at a bank on the other side of town." At that moment I was thinking why was he is still a figurine. When I found Spyro, he couldn't move a muscle, and after I picked him up he was free. Then I remembered the news show that I saw the night I met Spyro. I remember how Sunburn was it was still in that weird toy form even after that guy picked him up. "Jack, are you okay?" I was sort of caught off guard, for a moment I forgot where I even was.

"Umm, oh yeah, I'm fine. Just was thinking about something. If you can fly down to the alley next to the hotel, I can pick you up and we'll head over to the bank," I said. I knew that I couldn't just ask if they could just give it to me, legally I would need a warrant. Unfortunately I don't have any basis for a warrant since me just wanting it wasn't enough. I was hoping my subtle charm and good looks will be enough. I decided not to tell Spyro this; he already had enough stress on his mind. I packed up whatever we had brought into the hotel, and I went down to the first floor and checked out of the hotel. I went to my car and tossed my bag into the back seat. I started my car drove to the alley of the hotel, and I saw Spyro did exactly as I asked and was waiting behind the alley's dumpster. Spyro jumped into the passenger seat. I backed out of the alley and began to head over to Henderson Bank and Trust.

"So what are we gonna do after we find Drobot?" I asked Spyro. It felt as if we were embarking on an incomplete plan. If we even can get to Drobot, is it even possible he'll even know anything? Plus I'm not even sure if he's even there. And if he does know something, how long will it take until they can get back to Skylands. "I don't know, hopefully he knows why the portal doesn't work," said Spyro. He didn't really give me answer. Although I can't blame him, I sometimes rather be the person that follows the plan instead of giving it, especially when you don't know what's wrong.

**Just to let you know, this chapter was intended to be MUCH longer, but after it hit almost 4000 words I this was a good ending point. Thanks for reading, if you liked it please review it. If you have any suggestions, message me. Next chapter should be up by the end of next week.**


	6. Dirty Cops and Deadly Brawls

I kept driving for a little bit, and we ended up in the middle of the city. I knew that Embers Blade Avenue was sort of on the outskirts of Santa Fe. I turned down into quiet neighborhood filled a bunch homes. It was deserted at the moment, probably because kids are at school and parents are at work. This wasn't the place people come here on vacation to see.

I was at the middle of the street, and then I heard a siren go off. I looked behind me and saw that a police car was behind me.

"Oh crap," I said.

I checked my speedometer, and it said I wasn't speeding. I didn't know why he was pulling me over.

"What's that sound?" asked Spyro.

"Spyro, jump in the back and get under the blankets and don't move." I said in a sort of a panic. The back of my car was filled with random clutter from the trip; I decided to bring some blankets from my home.

"Why?"

"JUST DO IT!"

Spyro, not wanting to argue, went into the back and pulled the blankets over him. He was camouflaged in the back. The only way anybody could tell he was back there is if he moved or made a sound. I stopped the car on the side of the street and the police officer came out of his car. He walked up to my car as I was lowering my window.

"Do you know how fast you were going, boy?" said the officer. I looked at name tag under his badge, his name was Daniel Scheffler. "I was going 15 in a 15, sir," I said trying to be respectful. I wasn't in a good position to fight getting a ticket. "Well I clocked you going 30 back here. How can you explain that?" said Officer Scheffler. I didn't know what he was talking about; there was no way I was going that fast. I'm pretty sure I would be able to tell if I was going 30 mph on a deserted road like this. "I don't know, maybe your radar gun is broken." He didn't take a liking to what I just said, even though I tried to use a nice, respectful tone. "Are you getting smart with me boy?" he said in threatening voice. I know he's trying to make me scared, but when people try to threaten me, I always get mad. Unfortunately this isn't the time to get irate, so I kept calm, and let him continue on with his pointless rant of calling me boy. "No sir." It looked like he was about to square me right in my jaw. "License and registration." I pulled out my driver's license from my wallet, and grabbed the registration from the glove compartment. He took my license and registration out my hands, and walked back to his police cruiser. I really didn't like the aura this guy was giving off. I was worried that things might get ugly. The cop came back to my car.

"You do realize that this says you're 15."

"Yes I do." This wasn't the first time I got pulled over, it gets annoying when the police believe my license is a forgery. Only an idiot would forge a driver's license that said the age was 15.

"Then I also guess you're not stupid enough to realize that you need your mommy or daddy to be in the car with you at all times," he said as if I was moron. I was over with being a nice guy.

"If you looked at it more closely you'll realize it says Drivers License Class E." He looked at my license again which was still in his hand. Keeping Eagle Force's waiver on age restrictions isn't easy; many people think it would be a lot easier just to throw me and Dylan, Dayton, and Alex in jail. It's hard keeping the opinions of lawmakers in favor of Eagle Force. We have to a lot of lobbying toward government officials, even though lobbying is just a fancy word for bribe.

"So why is a Florida boy driving his daddy's Mustang in the state of New Mexico."

"With all due respect, _boy_, that's none of your business." He grunted and stared at me. He was staring at me, like I was supposed to be scared of him. I was staring right back at him, letting him know I'm somebody you don't want to mess with, but he didn't seem to get the message. We seemed to be glaring at each other for hours even though it has even been 20 seconds.

I heard a sneeze coming from the back of my car. I was praying that the cop didn't hear it, but he took notice. At this moment I got worried but I kept my cool.

"Who do you got hiding back there?" he said with a smirk, acting like he had something over me.

"Nobody."

"Well step out of the car, and let me take a look." He thought he was winning a game I didn't want to play. Even if I didn't want to play, I'm still going to try and win.

"I don't consent to any searches officer." I knew that legally he couldn't search without my permission.

"Why, do you have something to hide?"

"No it's just that I don't want your hands touching my car." His anger had hit a boiling point, but unlike the construction worker at the museum, the cop had no one from stopping him from acting on a dangerous impulse. The cop pulled out a knife; it didn't look like it was issued to him, and started to make a gigantic, long scratch on the side of my car.

"HEY!" I shouted at him.

"Here's what you're gonna do you little brat: you're going to step out the car, I'm going to search your car and find whoever your hiding, then I'm going to arrest you, and, if you're nice, I'll make sure you don't spend the rest of youth in jail. If you continue with 'don't consent to searches' crap, I'll put an APB out on this car, and say that it's stolen and has over 200 pounds worth of drugs in it. Your choice," he said in a threatening, aggressive voice. I looked behind me and saw the police car he came in, I noticed that the dashcam was broken. I wasn't sure if he intentionally broke it or not, but now there was no evidence of his threats. It was if he was if he knew as if he was going to get me on something, but I still had a card to play.

"No Officer Scheffler, this is what _you're _going to do. You're going to back to your car, drive off, and I never see you again. If you don't, I'm gonna arrest you for vandalism. Believe me; you don't want to mess with me." I was hoping that this would deter him from harassing me any longer. If he gets charged with vandalism, it's bound to open more doors that would ruin his career, and his life.

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm an agent of the FBI!" I shouted at him. I picked up my badge which was in between the driver and passenger's seat. The dirty cop's eyes widen at the site of the badge. He almost stumbled onto the road. "You're a what?" he asked back at me, as if he didn't hear the first time. "I'll say it slower for you. I'm—a—federal—agent." In the past four years of my life I've seen a lot the darkside of the law. Some people think that just because they have a position of authority, it makes them a god. Those people often forget they are still a human being. If people don't respect you, authority means nothing. I'm just glad that not every cop is a bad one. Sometimes it feels like I'm on both sides of the law. The part that does good for people and the part that strong-arms people into getting what they want.

I could see in his eyes that he was scared as he realized that he met his match. He didn't do anything for a minute; all he did was just stare at me. The silence between us was broken when the radio on his chest started to talk.

"_This is Officer Erica Grapard requesting immediate back-up at Henderson Bank and Trust located on 1034 Embers Blade Avenue. I have shots fired and a man down. There are hostages inside of the bank and suspects are a part of the Dultra crime syndicate. NEED IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE FROM ANYONE IN THE VECINITY!" _I could hear the sound of gunfire in the background. The Dultras? Why were they at same bank I was going to? This couldn't be a coincidence.

Officer Scheffler gave me back my license and registration, and started to walk back to the police cruiser. He didn't say one word into his walkie talkie, I couldn't believe my eyes. "Are you just gonna do nothing?!" I yelled at him as he was walking back to his car. "Why should I? Whatever that bitch gets, she deserves it," he said as walked my towards my car.

"So you're just gonna let her die?"

"You know what if you care so much about her, you can die with her." He took off his walkie talkie and threw it at my head.

"Argh. What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. You're the FBI agent." I knew that I had to the job that this guy wasn't going to do. I was enraged at the fact that this cop wasn't going to do anything. He is probably gonna go hide some hole, probably the same hole he crawls out each morning. I was threw with this guy abusing his power, if it wasn't for the more immediate matter, I would make sure that his life would crumble around him.

"Expect Internal Affairs investigating your ass Scheffler!"

"Yeah whatever," he said as he got back into his car and drove off. He didn't care one bit about the hostages at the bank or the officer that was there. To be honest, I thought he would be into gunfights and all that stuff. The kind of things that get you on the front page of newspapers, but it turns out he was just a scared dog that runs from any kind of danger.

Spyro came from hiding, and jumped back into the passenger's seat. "Did you really have to sneeze?" I asked with a mad grimace on my face. "You try hiding under that stuff for 10 minutes, besides what's wrong."

"Do you remember that guy was choking me to death when we first met?"

"Yeah."

"He's was a member of the Dultras. The Dultras are heavily armed and heavily feared organization. They take whatever they want, whenever they want."

"So why don't the local police stop them?"

"Because the local police are going to have a lot more problems to deal with."

I picked up the walkie talkie that Scheffler threw at me, and I started to talk into it. "Officer Grapard, I'm a part of the FBI and I'm within the proximity of Embers Blade Avenue. Do you still request back up?" About two seconds later she answered. "FBI? Alright just get here fast, there are hostages inside the bank and the robbers are still firing at me," she said as I could still here the sounds of bullets whizzing pass her. "Okay I'll be there in 5 minutes." There was probably paperwork involved when federal agents get involved with local police, but at that moment I don't think anybody cared. I put the car in drive and floored the engine. I wasn't sure about hostages, it could go either way for them.

I was beginning to hear more pleas for help over the radio from other officers, some were lucky enough to receive assistance from other officers from the county over, but it wouldn't be enough. By the end of the day there will be deaths on both the good and bad sides. I was about a quarter a mile away from the bank and I pulled over onto the side of the road, and I popped the trunk.

"Jack what are you going to do?" Spyro asked me. I opened up the trunk and put on the bulletproof vest that I always left in there. "I'm going to help Grapard suppress the Dultras until SWAT teams arrive." I said as I loaded a magazine into one of the assault rifles I brought with me. That was the best plan I could come up with, the Dultras have all the advantages. Only SWAT and the National Guard have the resources to even compete with the Dultras. "What am I suppose to do?"

"I need you to fly out and take out the Dultra helicopters. They always fly in a triangle formation so they shouldn't that hard to spot. Make sure it's the Dultras and not any other helicopter."

"What's a helicopter?"

"Trust me; you'll know when you see it." When the Dultras perform robberies, they always have the upper hand. They use helicopters as air support, and as a way to escape.

"How will I know which helicopters are theirs?"

"They're the ones that are gonna shoot at you."

"Alright, stay safe Jack." Spyro said. I tossed the M4A1 onto my back, and put more magazines into the pouches on my bulletproof vest. "No promise," I said. I grabbed the ACR, the other assault rifle I brought, and loaded another clip into it. The Dultras bring types of guns that the police can't compete with in their regular arsenal, the more firepower I bring, the better. "Good luck," I said to Spyro. The dragon flew off into the sky. I hope he doesn't get spotted – or get shot. I put on the holster for my sidearm and slid the Glock G17 that I brought with me, the same one I used in the warehouse, and into it. I grabbed all the ammunition I brought for the weapons I was bringing, and stashed it with me.

The bank was around the corner, I knew that the second I pear over it a hail of bullets would come flying at me. If I could survive the 400 meter dash, I would still have to deal with the Dultras. I walked over to the corner, and I took a deep breath. I could hear the loud, thundering sounds of the guns. The ACR was in my left hand, and the M4 was holstered onto my back. "Here I go," I said to myself. I went around the corner, and I started sprinting as hard as I could. Bullets were passing by me left and right. About half way I saw Grapard using her police car as cover, and another person sitting up against the car. He didn't move an inch, I assumed the worse.

I was about 10 feet from the car and I dived towards it to avoid the gunfire. I landed on my stomach, and I got into a crouching position. I looked at Grapard, she was in shock that I was here, she probably was expecting someone in their late twenties instead of someone who is in high school. "KID WHAT ARE DOING HERE?!" she bellowed out at me. I'm guessing she probably didn't notice the amount of guns that I was carrying with me. Erica Grapard looked really young, probably her first year on the force. "I'm Special Agent Jack Ashburn from the FBI, I received your distress call." I said. It seemed that she really didn't care about my age after that; I think she would take any back up as it is.

"How did you get that distress call?" she asked.

"Long story. Here take the ACR, you're gonna need a bigger gun than your pistol." She holstered her pistol and took the ACR. I handed her all the ACR ammo I had, and I slinged the M4A1 off my back. I looked at the officer next to me. His hands were over his chest, but he wasn't breathing. "He's my partner, John Leftward, as soon as we got here one of the Dultras shot through his armor," she said. I put two fingers onto his neck to see if there was a pulse, there was none. He was dead. I knew a lot more of these deaths will be coming. All I could hope for was that he won't die vein. I looked up over the hood and started firing at the Dultras. It didn't do much, me and Grapard would have to work together to save the hostages. I got back into cover. "How many Dultras are in there?" I asked her over the ear piercing gunfire.

"20 maybe." I was worried about this. That means that this was the Dultras main target, the one where they put the most people at.

"How many hostages?"

"I don't know, I counted the cars parked. There are probably at least 10, maybe 15."

"Alright, did you call SWAT?"

"About 10 minutes ago."

"Good." That meant that we'd only have to wait about ten more minutes until they arrive, but it still didn't mean the Dultras aren't going to give up. All I can hope for is that they get what they want and leave, without murdering the hostages. They don't like to leave witnesses alive. Unfortunately, there isn't much to hope for. I looked up and saw four masked men come out of the building. One of them went behind a pillar that was next to doors of the bank, and the rest went behind parked cars. Probably going to try and flank us. All of them were carrying AK-47s.

"You know how to use one of these?" I said.

"Been using one all my life," she said. I really didn't know what she meant by that.

Both of us were on opposite sides of the squad car, I was in the front and Grapard was in the trunk. "We fire together on three," I shouted.

"Okay," she shouted.

"1…2…3!" Both of us stood up from cover and started shooting together. I was aiming at the guy behind one of the pillars, while Grapard was suppressing the Dultras behind the parked cars. The four Dultras were smart enough to stay in cover, in less than a few seconds I had emptied my magazine off all its ammo, but Grapard was smart enough to burst fire. I got back into cover and released the clip from my gun, and grabbed a fresh one from my vest.

"ASHBURN WATCH OUT!" yelled Grapard. She then turns her ACR towards me, and then fired the gun. I looked at her with shock at the idea that she would betray me, but she wasn't aiming at me. I turned around and saw that the Dultra I was shooting at was trying to flank me, but instead of him killing us with his bullets, Erica killed him with hers. The Dultras tried the tactic I was worried about.

"Thanks." I told her.

"I guess that makes us even for you coming to save me."

"Trust me, it does."

I hope Grapard doesn't try to criticize for almost making a fatal mistake, but right now wasn't the time to worry about people's opinion of me. I put a new clip into my gun, and got back into position. I moved closer to Grapard to help defend against the Dultras on her side, I didn't have much of a view from the hood of the car. I peered over the car and saw Dultra through the windshield and back window of the SUV he was hiding behind. I aimed my M4A1 at him, and sent five bullets at him. Both windows shattered at the same time and he fell to the hard concrete below him.

"I don't get it, why hasn't any other reinforcement come?" questioned Grapard. We haven't been here long, only a few minutes so SWAT shouldn't be here, but with the amount of bullets from the remaining Dultras it felt like hours.

"Didn't you hear the other calls for help on your radio? The Dultras are attacking many other businesses. They're trying to split up law enforcement. We'll be lucky if SWAT gets here in time."

"But that doesn't explain why they're here. What do they have to gain by robbing all the banks in the area?" I rose up from my cover and fired at a Dultra who was out in the open. I winged him in the shoulder, and he dropped his AK to the ground. He got back behind the SUV clutching his hand to his injured shoulder, and took out his sidearm.

"I don't know, it could be anything from getting account records to just pissing the government off." The Dultras definitely don't need the money. Their empire thrives by gun running, human smuggling, money laundering, and many other illegal activities.

"If these guys do this often, why hasn't the country to put some plan into action when this kind of thing happens?"

"This kind of thing doesn't happen often. These kinds of attacks are highly coordinated and are unpredictable. The last one was five years ago in Minnesota. The Dultras got away with $74,000,000 worth of jewelry, gold, and guns, but that wasn't even their main target. They were after four military predator drones, they got away clean. Whatever else they stole, they called the spoils of war. 16 people died that day, none of them were the Dultras."

"Why hasn't anyone heard about the stolen predator drones?"

"If you were in charge of the base, would you want the media to get ahold of this information?"

"Well how do you know about it?"

"Before I arrived in New Mexico I was investigating the Dultras, nearly got killed doing it. I only learned about this a few weeks ago." The investigation I was doing into the Dultras was dangerous and bloody, the last few investigators died of mysterious reasons. Since my standing with the FBI isn't exactly perfect, they decided to give it to me and Dylan. Our investigation hasn't yield much results, the Dultras keep a tight lid on most of the things they do. I'm no detective, I don't like having to spend hours to finding evidence and following leads.

The Dultra I shot came out from behind the SUV. His face was pale; he had lost a lot of blood. He shot a round through the windows. The glass shattered like snow above Erica's head. I rose from cover with my assault rifle, he pointed his gun at me, but I fired first. The rounds entered his chest, and the life exited his body.


	7. The Cop, The Kid, And The Dragon

**Hey everybody, sorry that it took two months to upload. The chapter was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. This is the largest chapter I ever wrote. **

Spyro's POV

I've been soaring around the area for ten minutes finding nothing that represented what Jack called a helicopter. The sky was a vast, abandon void. The skies in Skylands are filled with life and curiosity. Here on this world it is filled with nothing except emptiness, I really miss my home.

In the horizon I saw three tiny objects flying in the direction of the bank. I decided to get closer to them. The objects got bigger as I was closed the gap between us. The objects looked like great metal beasts, the kind of machines that Kaos would make. I heard the people in the aircrafts shouting and yelling when I came in site of them. Some of them pointed their weapons at me, while others were confused at what to do. I was flying on the side of one of the helicopters; I'm still too far away to do anything. If I try to get closer they'll start shooting, and I can't blast a fireball at them because it will miss due to the fact of how fast they're flying, it's hard enough keeping up with them.

The people in the chopper that I was close to started firing bullets. I dove down near the ground to avoid getting shot. Now I was 100% sure that these were the guys I was supposed to find, like Jack said, the people who would shoot at me would be the Dultras. I looked and saw the large steel hulls of the aircrafts. I had an idea on how to take down one of the aircrafts, but it isn't a smart one. Then again, this whole trip has been filled with Jack's brain-dead plans. Maybe some of his luck rubbed of me.

I soared back up into the sky, managing to avoid the gunfire and found myself chasing the chopper from behind. I saw the 2 other helicopters disband and go into different directions, I was worried of what they were going to do, but at least I will only have to deal with one. I started to aim at the helicopter since of the good position I was in; I started to blast two fireballs at them. Both of them horribly missed and dispersed shortly after they past the helicopters. I saw a part of a man's body come out the helicopter. One hand was on a handle while one foot was on the landing skid. In his other hand the man was carrying a large gun, kind of looked like one of the guns that Jack took out of the trunk of his car. The Dultra started firing his weapon at me. "Whoa!" I shouted. I veered to the right; I was surprised of how close the bullets came to me.

I flapped my wings harder to try and catch up with the helicopter. I managed to dodge all the gunfire that was coming for me. I kept pushing myself and I was able to grab onto the underbelly of the large aircraft. My claws keep trying to slide off the large, tough metal exterior. I started to hear the conversations from the people inside the helicopter, even with the loud, vociferous sounds of the blades that keep this thing from falling to the ground.

"Where did that thing go? Did somebody hit that thing?" I heard from the shouting above. He sounded like the leader of the group. I remember seeing about six or seven people in aircraft.

"I don't know. Does anybody even know what that thing was?"

"No. Could it have been a drone?"

"Since when was the last time a drone has been able to breathe fire!"

I looked down from the chopper to see that the giant buildings and people looked like tiny ants from this great of height. I saw dozens of people run from the buildings below, and I'm also seeing an enormous amount of picket lines with what looks like the law enforcement. Some of them were in cover, while others were had their guns trained at the entrances. There weren't many officers at each of these buildings. Jack was right; the good side was going to be on the short end today.

I'm trying to figure out a way to take down this chopper. I know Drobot would know how to destroy these things; I'm going through a lot of trouble to get him. I began to carve a small square on the chopper with my claws. When I was finished, the small square fell to the Earth below me. I looked around and saw a bunch of wires and cords go to different places, I started pulling them and suddenly the helicopter stopped dead in its tracks. We weren't plummeting to the ground, but the helicopter was hovering in the same spot.

"Damn it! I lost all pressure in the pedals and the controls aren't responding," screamed the pilot.

"What do you mean?!" shouted another Dultra.

"I don't have control of the chopper dumbass! If the autopilot didn't engage we would all be dead."

"You're gonna be dead in a second if this chopper doesn't start moving!"

I don't know what I did, but I knew that this is my only chance to destroy this thing. I let go of the aircraft and flew up high above it. "Let's do this," I said. I started to dive towards the helicopter. I curled up into a ball, and then fire consumed my entire body. It was like my body was turning into a meteor, sort of the same way I came onto this planet, except much bigger.

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Jack's POV

I looked out into the sky and saw a large explosion. What is Spyro doing? I looked up from cover and started to fire back at the bank. The last living Dultra that had come out earlier went back into the bank after his last friend died.

"How long has it been since you called SWAT?" I shouted as a hail of gunfire came at me.

Grapard looked down at her watch. "About 25 minutes."

"Damn it, they should be here already!" We've been holding our line for now, but we're going to eventually run out of ammunition. It's amazing that we're still alive; the Dultras haven't tried anything since the four came out. They're probably going to wait until they can airlifted out of here, at least the dragon is dealing with that for now. The Dultras are holding all the cards; they have superior firepower, more men, and better cover.

"Grapard get ahold of dispatch and see what's keeping them." I said. She began to into her walkie talkie.

"This is Officer Erica Grapard requesting an ETA on assistance." I fired my gun over at the bank; I was aiming towards the broken windows near the doors where some of the Dultras were held up. One of them shot back at me, I ducked back into cover. "Officer SWAT assistance was sent out about 20 minutes ago, but they have encountered heavy resistance on the ground and are taking causalities. We are currently dispatching helicopters from Taos, ETA 15 minutes," he said. I got back up from cover and fired my gun back at the Dultra; he ducked and then sent bullets back to me. I dodged to the right and sent what was left in my magazine back at him.

"If they don't get here soon we'll have to go in ourselves," I said

"What?! That's suicide!" Grapard shouted at me.

"It's suicide if we stay out here, and the Dultras won't kill hostages just yet. If we go in they'll care more about killing us than about killing them. Besides if the Dultras leave they'll just kill all the hostages anyway."

"We're only doing that as a last resort, we're not risking their lives!"

"Listen if you have a better plan, I'm open to it." Grapard just looked at me a second, and then got up from cover and was able to shoot one of the Dultras that was out from cover. It must not be easy for her to take orders from a teenager, but I unfortunately have to be the expert on the Dultras. I wonder how many lives will perish today because of them.

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Spyro's POV

I kept breathing fireballs at the helicopter, I was chasing another one of the Dultras helicopters; they kept firing large rockets at me. I found another the helicopter a few minutes after I destroyed the first one. I managed to dodge all the enemy projectiles coming at me, but I have been cutting it pretty close. A couple of minutes ago I thought I felt one of their bullets come scrape against my skin. I can still feel the pain, but pain is something I have gotten used to.

I realized, ever since I became a Skylander, that I and the other Skylanders have to endear the pain of others so they don't have to. This isn't the first time that Kaos has attacked Skylands; every time he attacks he gets stronger. His technology advances and his forces grow stronger with each passing attempt. With each battle I fight I can feel the pain from acid being blown into my face, an enemy tail-whipping me, falling of a 20 foot drop, or, in this case, a bullet grazing my skin. But the worse pain of all is the one you can't protect people from. It kills me every time I hear a child cries over seeing everything he had being destroyed right in front of him; the only thing he has left is a family and even that sometimes is decimated. That has happened to more than once. I shook my head to try and forget uncomfortable memories that had popped up in my head.

"WOAH!" I shouted as I barrel rolled to the right. The Dultras had sent another rocket towards me. I attempted to get closer to the helicopter, but the chopper was picking up speed. My wings are starting to get tired from this constant flying. I know that I'm a dragon, but even dragons need a moment's respite from flying. I looked out into the distance and noticed another helicopter coming out into the distance. At first I thought it was another one of the Dultra's choppers, but this one looked one different. This one is colored blue and white while the Dultras are colored fully black. I peered into the aircraft and saw 15 or 20 people. They're all wearing heavy armor and a few wearing helmets. They're also carrying a bunch of heavy weapons, but they weren't using them like the Dultras. I'm going to guess that this was the SWAT team that Jack was talking about.

The Dultra's helicopter began to change its course towards the white and blue helicopter, and instead of firing on me, they started shooting at them. The SWAT helicopter began to attempt to sway from the Dultras, but they weren't letting up. The SWAT team than began to try and dissuade the Dultras by firing back at them. One of the SWAT members was firing a long rifle with a big scope. A shot from the large gun had impacted itself into one of the Dultra's chests. He fell out of the chopper and his body started the long decent towards the ground below.

"Sir, we just lost Jerome!" shouted a Dultra.

"Bentsen set up and use the M2 Browning, I want you to saw them in half," shouted the captain looking person. The one he called Bentsen had mounted a large chain gun onto the side of the Dultra helicopter. The SWAT sniper took a shot at Bentsen, but missed and the bullet lodged itself into one of the cabin doors. Bentsen than began to fire the 50 cal at the SWAT helicopter. The SWAT pilot swerved their helicopter and was able to avoid the oncoming bullets from the Browning. The Dultra loaded a new belt of ammunition into the gun. He then, with aid of the rest Dultras, fired back at the SWAT helicopter. The sniper from the SWAT helicopter was hit in the arm. He dropped his sniper and clutched a hand to his injured arm. Another SWAT member went to his aid.

"Sir, if we keep this up we're going to miss the rendezvous time. Requesting permission to use the FIM-92," said a Dultra as he picked a large object. It looked like a rocket launcher.

"Permission granted."

"Firing Stinger missile!" A burst of smoke came from behind the Dultras rocket launcher and it launched a missile towards the SWAT helicopter. I blew a fireball at the missile with the hope that I could hit it, but I missed.

The Stinger missile soared through and impacted itself into the SWAT helicopter's tail rotor. "NO!" I screamed. The helicopter began swerve around in a circle and it quickly started to descended towards the ground. The aircraft crashed into a building, and a large ball of fire engulfed the helicopter and the building. I hope there wasn't anybody inside, there is already enough dead today. Sadness was soon replaced by rage when I looked at the Dultra's helicopter. I dashed toward the helicopter ignoring the safety of my own life so I can take theirs away.

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Jack's POV

The Dultras weren't letting up on their ground. A couple of times I tried advance on them, but they kept me back with their firepower. Erica wasn't happy that I tried; she even asked me if she wanted her to put a bullet in my head to save the Dultras the trouble. But it has been a long time the Dultras have made any attempt at us.

"Grapard, we have to go in," I said. She looked at me with anger in her face.

"If we go in, the hostages die and we die," she said.

"We can't wait any longer; it's been over an hour since you called SWAT the first time. The squad car can't keep being our cover for much longer. If we go in together we'll have a shot," I said. I looked over my shoulder and saw 5 Dultras come out of the doors of the bank. "We've got company." I loaded another magazine into my gun, and so did Grapard.

Grapard got out of cover and so did I and we began to fire simultaneously at the Dultras. I was down to my last clips of ammunition for my M4A1; I'm not sure how much Grapard has left. My gun was on semi-auto and I sent a few rounds at them as they exited the bank. The Dultras went behind the pillars in front of the bank while the rest went in front of the parked cars using the same tactic they had done earlier. I thought this time we would have the upper hand since we had been through this before, but this time the Dultras came packing. All of them were wearing body armor which our rifles won't be able to penetrate, meaning that a headshot would be the only way to finish them. A few of them were armed with high powered shotguns that would be able to shred through my and Grapard's armor. The rest were still armed with their deadly AKs.

"Watch out for them. It won't be to long before they attempt to rush us," I said.

"Alright, how good are you on ammo?"

"Fine for now. I'm running low on my M4 but I'll make do."

"Switch to your Glock if you have to."

"I will."

The Dultras with AKs began to fire at the squad car. Grapard and I ducked lower into our cover. "Damn it, they're trying to suppress us! Keep an eye on our flanks." I yelled over the roar of gunfire. My warning came too late. The two Dultras with the shotguns came running for us. One went to my side and the other went on Erica's. The Dultras weren't next to us yet. I peered around the corner of the car and saw them coming. I fired a few times at the one coming for me. The Dultra jumped back and fired his shotgun at me. I dropped flat to the ground as the buckshot pelts pierced through the car. I looked under the car and saw the Dultra's feet. My rifle was under my chest with the barrel pointed towards the Dultra, and I aimed as best as I could and pulled the trigger four times. One of the bullets shredded his ankle, and he fell to the ground. I got up off the concrete, being careful not to put my head above the car, and went to Grapard's side. She had her ACR trained and ready for the Dultra and waited for him to come around the corner. I'm aimed my gun next to her shoulder being ready to help her out if she needed it. A few seconds the Dultra came around the corner, Grapard and I fired at the same time. Our bullets met his forehead, and he fired his shotgun in the air while he was falling to the ground.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," I said. Although that is sort of an understatement.

I looked over our cover and saw another Dultra pulling back the one I shot in the ankle to safety. "Grapard, help me out with this guy," I said. The Dultra on has one hand pulling his shot friend and in his AK-47 other hand that was aimed in our area. The other two Dultras were still shooting at us.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Suppress the two near the bank while I finish the others."

"Okay."

Grapard switched her gun to full-auto and started to shoot at the two Dultras. One of the Dultras went into cover while the other switched his aim to her instead. Grapard directed her shots towards him and he dodged her shots and went into cover as well. I looked over cover and immediately sent a bullet between the eyes of the Dultra who was dragging the injured one. I stood up fully this time and sent four shots at the Dultra on the ground.

All of the sudden I heard a familiar voice around me, I looked around for the source of the noise but all I saw was Erica and her partner that was killed, John Leftward. "Dispatch can you repeat your last, over," said Officer Grapard. At that moment I realized it was the same person over the radio earlier, not some ghost.

"Officer Grapard we've just received word that your SWAT assistance has been killed in action," said the person over the walkie talkie. "WHAT!" shouted both me and Grapard. "We cannot wait any longer for backup, we're already being overwhelmed by enemy forces as it is," I said into the walkie talkie. Our ammunition was depleting fast, and the Dultra would be soon executing the hostages in order for us to back off. We've already killed about eight of them. The longer we were here, the sooner the Dultras start to kill off the innocents to save themselves.

"Hold them off for now, there are several others requesting additional assistance. We are currently attempting to coordinate getting additional units from out of county, but lines of communication are currently severed."

"What about our SWAT backup that was arriving on ground, did they make it?"

"We attempted contacting them earlier. We received no answer."

"Damn it. What about the local Nation Guard."

"The nearest bases are currently under attack. Units that have been dispatched are currently tasked elsewhere. Hold your ground for now, we are currently receiving many distress calls and our resources are stretched thin."

I looked over to Grapard; she knows what we have to do even if she doesn't want to admit it. I can understand where she is coming from. All she cares for is the lives of the hostages. None of us would imagine today that the Dultras would be robbing all of Santa Fe.

"Grapard you know what we have to do."

"Ashburn shut up! If they die I don't want their blood on my hands."

"Grapard, their blood won't be on yours it will be on mine! You're not the one choosing to do this, I am!" Too many people have died because of me. Because I made a wrong call or missed an opportunity. She looked at me with guilt in her eyes, but the pain will live with me if this goes wrong. Her look went from anger and guilt to passive.

"Alright let's do it," she said.

"Okay, if were gonna go in, let's do it now. It looks it only those two guarding the door. Once there dead we charge the door once we're in we go room to room. Clear out any Dultras you see. Once we find the hostages, stay with them. Shout if you need anything."

"Don't you think lethal force should a last resort kind of situation?" she asked. I looked around the area. I saw the ocean of bullet shells that littered the place and the dead Dultras at the opposite ends of the vehicle. "We don't have the time or manpower to watch over prisoners," I said the rather cruel, but true fact. Besides, the Dultras don't deserve the luxury of living.

"Let's take these guys out!" I shouted. Grapard and I peered over the hood and saw the two Dultras had their sights trained on us, just waiting for the moment that we come out. At least this time it's sort of an even fight. I went to the other side of the car with Grapard. "If you give me a distraction I'll take them out," suggested Grapard. I looked down at my M4A1 and checked to see how much ammunition I had left in the magazine. I only had four bullets left in it and after that I would only have one clip left. "Alright," I said. I went over to the hood of the car.

"HEY WHY DON'T YOU GUYS COME OUT AND WE SETTLE THIS LIKE MEN!" I shouted over to the 2 Dultras.

"YOU KNOW YOUR NOT GOING TO LEAVE HERE ALIVE!" shouted one of the Dultras.

"I BEG TO DIFFER!" I got up out of cover and fired at them. Once I was out of ammo I quickly ducked back into cover. Both of the Dultras started to focus and fire on me. Grapard began to fire at them and quickly picked them off before they noticed her. I slid in my last M4A1 magazine into my gun.

"I'm down to my last clip for my M4," I said.

"Why don't you just pick up an AK?" Grapard asked.

"If I do I would still only have one mag in the gun. I don't want to scavenge more clips off of dead Dultras and leave myself out in the open. Besides we don't have time," I answered. I peered over our cover and it was clear. Now's our chance.

"On three we haul ass towards the door," I said.

"Alright."

"1…2…3…CHARGE!" I shouted as we sprinted towards the door. I expected a shower of bullets to come at us, but no such thing happened. We reached the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. Grapard and I instead climbed through a shattered window that the Dultras had been shooting at us from. When we entered we saw no one except the dead Dultra that Grapard had shot earlier. "They must've gone back farther into the bank," whispered Erica. The Dultras probably went to regroup; after all we did take out half of the forces they have here. Although that is not saying much since they still outnumber us five to 1.

The area was a mess, the lobby was filled with knocked over chairs, and destroyed computers. Trash littered the entire place, and I noticed some weird substance on the floor. I went closer to it and it put my fingers to it. The weird substance was sticky and red. What went on here? I hope we aren't too late to save them. I wiped hand off and returned to Grapard.

"Alright let's split up," I said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she questioned.

"No, but we need to find them fast."

On the each end of the bank are two hallways, each were filled doors that led to the employees' offices. Both hallways were connected at the end with a passageway. In the middle of the passageway is the large vault that keeps all the money and other valuables. "Grapard you take the one on the left and I'll take the on the right. She nodded and went off. I went to my hallway and saw that there is about a ten rooms I would have to clear out. Some of the doors were open while others weren't.

I went next to the first room on my left, and I peered through the door's window. I saw one Dultra rummaging through files and opening up drawers. His back was turned to me and I slowly and carefully opened the door. The Dultra didn't notice me as I entered through the threshold. I aimed my gun at him and delivered three shots to him. He grunted as he fell on to the desk. "Room clear," I whispered to myself just out of habit.

The next two rooms I checked out were empty. I heard the sounds of Erica's gun as I was checking out the rooms. She better be careful. I went to the next door hugging the wall. I tried to look through the window, but the blinds were down. I cautiously turned the knob on the door and slowly gave the door a push to reveal the whole room. I pointed my rifle in front of me and stepped through the threshold of the room. As I entered into the office, a masked man grabbed the barrel of my gun with both of his hands and threw me against the wall. I had one hand on the handle of the gun with my fingers still on the trigger and my other hand on the barrel with the Dultra's. I accidently pulled the trigger and the bullet went and shattered a picture frame that was hanging on the wall. I used my arms and the M4A1 to thrust me and the Dultra to the ground. Now we were both on the ground wrestling to try and get control of my gun. I first was on top, but the masked Dultra was able to roll over on top of me. I could feel the weight of his enormous body crush my chest. Another Dultra entered the room pointing his fully loaded shotgun at us. I pulled the trigger on my assault rifle and it fired a hail of bullets at him. It continued to fire until the clip was empty. Bullet holes appeared all over his body as he fell to the floor. I reached out to grab a shard of glass from the broken picture frame. I grabbed it and sliced across the heavy Dultra's cheek. "AHH!" he screamed as blood poured out of mask. He took his hands of my gun and began to cover his face. He was still on top of me. I punched him in the chest and he rolled off of me. I got up off the floor. I picked my M4A1 and bashed the Dultra in head with the stock on my gun. His screams continued as he fell onto his back. His hand went down to his side to take out his handgun. He pointed at my head, but I was faster on the draw and shot him with my Glock.

I dropped my assault rifle seeing no point in keeping it with me since I'm out of ammunition. I wondered how the gun turned on the full-auto. My only guess it must've been switched on by accident when the Dultra and I were wrestling. I began to exit the office; I made sure to scan the hallway to make sure no other Dultra was coming. As I was leaving I started to pleas for help. I thought they were from the hostages, but the sounds came from the office behind me. Maybe there is a closet where they were all shoved into. I looked around the whole room and I saw no doors except the one leading out into the hallway. Then I noticed something protruding out of the Dultra's coat pocket. I went over to him and pulled out a toy, but this was no ordinary toy. It was a green, robotic suit wearing dragon. I had forgotten that this was the reason I came here because I was being sidetracked by saving a group of hostages from a gang of gun toting Dultras.

"Are you okay?" I said to the meteorite, again feeling like a total moron. A part of me never truly wanted me to accept that I'm talking to these things. As if Spyro was just a part of my imagination, but as each day passes it is hard to dispute the evidence that is in front of me.

"I'm fine. Wait you can hear me? Everyone else I try to talk can't hear me," said the dragon that is frozen down into a small toy. His voice sounds really low and synthesized, kind of like how robot would sound.

"Yeah I can. I know you have a lot of questions, and I'll explain later but right now I have to go take care of something."

"What do you have to do?"

"You know those men I just killed."

"Yeah."

"Well a lot more of them are here, and they've taken a lot of innocent people hostage. They'll kill them if I and someone else don't get to them soon," I said as checked over my shoulder to see if anyone was sneaking up on me.

"Oh yeah I think I saw those people who you are talking about."

"Wait you have?"

"I was being taken from the box that I've been locked in for a couple of days. As we left the vault I saw them take a bunch of people into a large room directly in front of the vault," said Drobot. Finally, I get some kind of good news.

"Good, that'll help me out," I said. I looked over my shoulder and put the figurine away with me. I exited the room and continued down the hall checking each room just as I did. I kept hearing Erica's gunshots on the other side of the building. I checked my gun's ammunition. I had only brought a few magazines of it thinking that I would only use my assault rifle. One of things that I kind of regret it now that I think about it, but luckily this is almost over.

I approached the corner, and I looked over it. The area was clear and I saw the vault was partially open. I decided first to go to it and see if any of the Dultras were still in there. I peeked into the vault, and saw no one. I did see power tools in and a lot of broken locks on the safety deposit boxes. It seemed as if they have left many valuable items. I saw unzipped duffel bags lying on the ground. Some of them were filled with cash and jewels, but they were being poorly cared for. As if they cared more about getting into the deposit boxes rather than what's out in the open. It would also seem like they should keep ahold of the duffel bags if they needed to make a quick escape, not keep them back here.

I didn't want to waste anymore time so I went towards the room directly in front of me. The blinds were down again so I can't tell if anyone is in there. The lettering on the glass said that this is the conference room. It would definitely be large enough for everyone. I was against the wall and I slowly began to turn the door knob. I slowly pushed the door forward. As soon as the latch was inside the room, a bullet whizzed by and nearly missed hand. "CRAP!" I shouted. I immediately bashed the door and went inside. I saw one Dultra without a mask. He had two pistols in his hands. One pointed at me and another pointed at a teenage girl who was on the ground crying. I pointed my gun at his head.

"Drop the gun!" I demanded.

"I don't think so," he said back. I looked to my right and I saw the rest of the hostages. A few of them were employees of the banks. One looked like the mom of the girl. Next to her was another mother holding her young child in her arms. The rest of them of them were covering their eyes. They were just people who were going amongst their business before the Dultras showed up. The Dultra looked about as old as Grapard. I inched my way closer to him.

"Move another step I will shoot both her and you where you stand!" he shouted.

"And I'll send a bullet into skull if you do! The rest of your friends are dead and it's just you. The only way you're leaving here is either in handcuffs or in a body bag."

"You don't think I will shoot her, I will if I have to!"

"No I don't think you will shoot her. You would've shot her the second I came in."

"I shot at when you tried to come in!"

"At the distance you're at, only a blind man could've missed."

"DON'T MAKE ME KILL HER!" he shouted. He picked up the girl and shoved one of his guns into her head.

"You don't have the balls," I said.

He let out an enraged scream and tossed the girl over to the conference table. He began to aim one of his pistols at me and began to fire. I dove to behind an office chair that is next to the large table. I readied my gun for the moment he came by. The office chair wasn't made to cover bullets. I saw them burst through the chair above my head. Each bullet was getting closer.

All of the sudden Grapard blasted into the room and sent a barrage of gunfire at the Dultra. He was dead before he landed on the ground. "You came at a good time," I said.

"Well they put up a fight, nearly got a hit a couple of times," she said.

"Same here."

I went over to the girl to check on her. "Are you okay?" I asked. She nodded her head. She only had a couple of bruises, but other than that she was fine. She went over to her mother and hugged her being glad that she is alive. I think all of us are glad to be alive at this point.

"How many Dultras did you find?" I asked Grapard.

"7. What about you?" She had gotten a lot of them in a short amount of time. I guess she must've got some them when I was wrestling the Dultra that ambushed me.

"3. So the 9 at the entrance, plus my 3, your 7, and this guy makes twenty. That's all of them right?"

"Yeah, it should be."

"Good." I can't believe. We survived and took back the bank from the Dultras. Although it was a high cost. Grapard lost her partner, but at least his death helped the innocent survive. "I'm going to go do a sweep of the building, stay with them," I said. I put a new magazine into my gun just in case. "Okay," she said. I dragged the dead Dultra's body out into the hall so they didn't have to look at it.

I still don't know why the Dultras targeted this bank. I knew that this was their main target, but what did they hope to gain? I don't think I'll be able to answer that question for a long while.

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The National Guard finally came and secured the area after about an hour after we took back Henderson Bank and Trust. My sweep of the building revealed no Dultras were in the building. I was standing in the lobby of the bank, the first room we entered when we came into the bank. The Chief of Police came up to me. "Son, the city of Santa Fe owes you a great debt," he said.

"You don't owe any me anything. There was nothing I could for the other places or Officer Leftward."

"He was one of my closest friends. I knew him since high school. He will be greatly missed."

"Do you have the causality reports for the other places?"

"Yes I do. Unfortunately there's more bad news than good. 267 either killed or wounded, most on our side. About 50 of them were hostages."

"Was Officer Daniel Scheffler among those?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Yes I heard he was ambushed by them. He suffered a couple gunshot wounds to his legs. Doctors say he'll make it, but he'll in a wheelchair for the next six months." That is the least that bastard deserves. He could've helped us or any of the other people that needed help.

"Were any of the Dultras able to escape?"

"Sadly most of them did. We couldn't secure the airspace in time. They made way with about $45,000,000 worth of stolen goods. Numbers could've been higher though, we found the wreckage of two of their helicopters. We also found the wreckage of the SWAT helicopter that was supposed to come to assist you."

"I'm truly sorry about this. I wish there was more I could've done to stop this."

"Don't be sorry, without you we would've lost Grapard and ten more hostages."

"Thanks. Listen if you don't mind sir if I could finish doing some business and then leave. I already gave my statement to the other officers."

"Sure, you've already done enough."

I walked back into the office where the large Dultra tried to kill me. The bodies of them have already been removed, but the room was still destroyed. I picked up my M4A1 and sheathed it onto my back. I cleared a part of the floor that was littered and sat down onto and I looked out to office window to see the sun beginning to set. It has been a really long day. First involving me to break in to a part of the museum only to learn that a portal to a planet doesn't work, then having to deal with a dirty cop, and lastly battling it out to stop the Dultras from escaping and murdering hostages.

I pulled out Drobot and pondered about taking him. I know it wasn't the right thing to do, but was it necessarily the wrong thing to do. I knew that he was a life form, but to everyone else he's a meteorite, an object. I know that people say two wrongs don't make a right, but can doing something wrong be justified as doing something good. "What do yeah have there?" said someone. I turned my head and Erica Grapard. I wonder what's going on in her head. Is she still mad that I gambled our lives and the lives of the hostages?

"It's a meteorite," I said seeing no point in lying to her. She deserved some kind of truth. Although I'm not going to tell her I'm harboring an alien. She sat down next to me.

"Isn't that one of those that fell down a few days ago?"

"Yeah."

"You know, I don't think I saw you come in with that," she said. I knew she burned me on it.

"So are you gonna arrest me?" I asked. Grapard thought it over for a few seconds.

"You saved my life and if you didn't show up a lot more people would've died. I think I can leave this out the report."

"Thanks. Grapard you mind if I ask you something?"

"Not at all."

"When I first gave you the ACR you said you've been using guns your whole life. What did you mean by that?"

"When I was a kid my dad took me and the rest of my hunting all time. I always had a good shot so I always competed in shooting tournaments. So using guns has always been second nature to me."

The night was beginning to come; I saw the first few stars come out of the sky. I got up and so did Grapard. "I believe it's time for me to leave," I said. We shook hands and Grapard returned my ACR to me. "I think you'll need it more than I do. Stay safe Special Agent Jack Ashburn," she said.

"And you too Officer Erica Grapard. And for the record I'm sorry about your partner."

"Don't be, he took the bullet for me and besides you made sure his death wasn't in vain. That's all he would ever ask for. May you have safe travels Ashburn."

"I can't promise you that, but I will try," I said.

I left the bank and walked to my car. There are still many questions that are left unanswered. Like why did the Dultras target the bank, when are Spyro and Drobot gonna be able to save their world and get off my mine, and how are we going to get the portal to work. Even with these questions there is one thing I know for sure. Our mission is going to be a lot bloodier than I thought.

**I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I want to take a second to thank you all for the positive reviews. Next chapter shouldn't be as long as this one. Again please review if you like it. If you have any suggestions you can message me. **


	8. Trust & Betrayal

**Hey everybody, kind of a short chapter compared to my last one. I know it's a late, but I wanted to upload this chapter today. **

It's around 11:00 P.M. and I still haven't found Spyro. After today's events my energy is drained, but I have still more to do. I popped the last of my green road flares I had on top of a large parking garage in downtown Santa Fe. I hoped Spyro would be able to notice the large contrast and would be able to make the connection that I was here. We did never make a place to meet up if we both survived the Dultras. Since the Dultras attacked many businesses in the city, downtown was hit pretty hard. The police made sure to lockdown the entire area. The Chief of Police made sure to give me complete access to the entire area after the help I gave to Grapard. So, ironically, the most populated place in the city became the best place for me to find to the one person who can't be seen by anyone else.

I leaned up against my car and looked out into the dark, open night sky with my binoculars. I scanned the area and saw so far nothing. The statuette of Drobot was placed on top of the trunk of my vehicle. "Ugh, where are we?" said Drobot. It's been a while since he talked to me; the last time was when I first met him in the bank. "I was wondering when you start talking."

"Sorry being trapped like this is exhausting. What are we waiting for?"

"We're waiting for your friend."

"Who?"

"Spyro."

"Spyro? How did he get free from this invisible prison? I saw all the other Skylanders get frozen down to this size."

"I don't know. When I first met him he crashed through the roof of a warehouse, he was in that same toy form you're in. Then he just grew and unfroze. I thought you would know he got free."

"No I don't. We might've gotten frozen down to this size because of the extreme cold in outer space, but we should've unfroze by now. Who are you by the way?"

"My name's Jack Ashburn."

I looked back into my binoculars and saw out into the horizon the dark silhouette of a dragon coming towards us. It started to bigger as time passed. Soon the green light coming from the road flares confirmed that the silhouette is Spyro. He saw me and started to descend to the top of the parking garage. "I was starting to think you were dead," I said as he landed next to me. The dragon had a sad look on his eyes. "Jack I'm sorry," said Spyro.

"What do you mean?"

"That last helicopter, I couldn't find it. I've been circling around the city for hours." After a crisis or terrible event happens people usually think that it's their fault. Like they could've done something different and it could've drastically changed the ending. That happens to me a lot since a part of my job is to handle dangerous situations. "Spyro, it's not your fault. Even if you were able to destroy all of the helicopters, I learned about an hour ago that they had backup transportation armed to the teeth. Odds are they would've made it out anyway. Besides the work you did save a few lives and did end some of the Dultras," I said trying to reassure him. His look became better, but not great. "Well at least my work was good for something," said Spyro. The unfortunate part is the only good I know to come out of his work was that by taking out two of the Dultras helicopters, he was able to buy me more time to take back the bank. Then again he also bought more time for the police to get more people out in time.

Our attention diverted towards Drobot. "It's weird seeing another Skylander on this planet. How are you doing Drobot?" asked Spyro.

"Well let's see, I've been stuck in a dark metal box for 2 days, I'm can't move any part of my body because I'm frozen like this, and to top it all off I had to watch the Core of Light get destroyed and watch Skylands fall to Kaos! But other than that I'm doing swell Spyro," said an angrily, sarcastic figurine.

"Believe me, the past week for me hasn't exactly been a vacation," I said. Spyro looked at me with a confused face."Why did you just randomly say that?"

"Say what?"

"Say 'this hasn't exactly a vacation.' Who were you talking to?"

"He was talking to me smart one," said Drobot. Spyro didn't seem to notice a thing he said. I began to wonder something. "You can't hear a word he says can you?" I said to Spyro. He looked even more puzzled. "Who, are you talking about Drobot? I didn't think he spoke."

"He did." It's strange how only I could hear him, maybe I am losing my mind, but now isn't the time to worry. I turned my focus away from that and I placed my attention towards freeing Drobot.

"Do you know how to free him?" I asked Spyro.

"Umm, how would I now?"

"Because you're the only Skylander who escaped the toy form."

"I didn't free myself, I thought you did," he said. I picked up Drobot and trying to think what I did while he was a toy, like maybe something I did freed Spyro. I looked all around looking for some kind of button or instructions that would tell me how to break him out of his prison. There was no such thing. I was beginning to get immensely frustrated by what seemed like a simple task. I placed him in the palm of my hand. "I know I already asked, but please; do you have any idea on how you can get out of this prison?" I asked in a sort of begging way. I don't know how to fix this problem, but hopefully the person who I nearly killed myself to get knows an answer. "Sorry, I don't," he replied.

"ARGH!" I angrily kicked the tire of my car. "What's the point of doing all this if all it does lead us to dead ends!" I screamed. Unexpectedly, the toy began to grow and glow in size just like Spyro had. I quickly placed him on the ground to avoid the conflict that will follow if I had dropped him like Spyro when I first met him. Seconds later the green dragon grew to his full size and he began to stretch his muscles. "I thought I would never be able to move again," he said as he cracked his bones. Drobot went to Spyro.

"Spyro it's good to see you, but where are the other Skylanders?" asked the green dragon.

"I don't know," answered Spyro in a low, depressed voice. It sucks being in a situation in where you can't help your friends, I've been in too many of those.

"Well why aren't you back on Skylands, I know it wouldn't be easy but you at least should've tried to fight Kaos on your own."

"There is no way back to Skylands. I tried using the only Portal on this planet, but it's broken."

"What do you mean it's doesn't work?"

"He means it exactly as it sounds, when Spyro jumped onto that rock all it did was nothing. He didn't materialize, and magically reappear in your world. The whole reason we rescued you was to see if you how to fix it," I interrupted. Drobot wasn't happy about my abrupt interruption, but he shrugged it off.

"So the whole reason you came for me is because of my superior intellect," he said all high mighty.

"If you want to look at it like that, then yes," said Spyro.

"Give me a rundown on what you did right before you tried to use the Portal."

"Not much to say. I snuck Spyro into a closed part of a museum, he jumped on the Portal, and then nothing happened," I said.

"Hmm. Very strange. Did anything standout while you were there?"

"Not that I know of," answered Spyro.

I began to reminisce over my time at the museum. It feels like a lifetime ago since I was there, but it happened this morning. It hasn't even been 24 hours. I do remember seeing something right before Spyro jumped on the Portal. "The only thing I can think of is seeing one of the symbols, the one that looked like an asterisk, glowing purple," I said. Drobot looked intrigued when I said this.

"Did any of the other symbols glow?"

"No, none of them did." Drobot thought even more on this.

"How much did it glow?"

"Not a lot, it was very faint. You would have to look right at it to even know if it was glowing. Why, is it important?"

"Maybe. The asterisk is the elemental symbol for magic. Magic is the element for Spyro. When somebody uses a Portal all the symbols light up, I'm going to assume none of them did when you two were there, so his presence might've triggered the magic symbol to glow. I'm going to have to think this over."

"Well then there's no point to stay here any longer," I said. I directed Spyro and Drobot to my car. Both of them jumped in and I shut the door as I sat down into the driver seat. I began to drive down off the parking garage. I had to get out of Santa Fe soon; I'm becoming worried that the Dultras would be coming for me. I'm running low on supplies; soon I would have to arrange for Eagle Force to give me some. There are some advantages in being the commander of a team of deadly, highly trained commandos. I had an idea on where to go; odds are there are places to stay in the city since probably many people probably left because of the Dultras, but I'm not taking any risk. I remember before I left the hotel the receptionist saying that there were places to stay in Tucumcari. I don't know much about the place. All that I know is that it is a small city, which is somewhere I want to be right now. A low key place where I might draw attention to some locals, but I won't draw any attention from the Dultras.

I made the two dragons hide in the back as I made it way past the police checkpoint. I started to drive east towards Tucumcari. I began to dial Ray Ammos, Eagle Force's weapon supplier. I kept hearing the ringing in my phone until it went to his voicemail. I pressed end call on my cell phone. It's strange that Ray didn't answer his phone; he usually does no matter the time of day. I needed to get supplies soon so I began to call another member of Eagle Force. I looked down at my phone and went back into my contact list. I pressed Amber Miller. I waited about a minute until she answered her phone.

"Ugh, hello?" she grudgingly said. I forgot it's around midnight where she is since of the time change.

"I guess someone had a long night," I jokingly said.

"You woke me up you jackass. What do you want Jack?" she said.

"I need someone come out to New Mexico and give me a supply drop."

"Why didn't you just call Ray, I'm not the one you would usually call for this kind of thing."

"Because when I called Ray he didn't answer, and this kind of urgent. I'm running low on cash and ammunition. Also the Dultras might be trying to assassinate me, so I rather be prepared for an attempt."

"Oh yeah I forgot that Dylan wanted them to turn off their cell phones."

"Who is 'them'?"

"About half of the team. Dylan's taking them to London to kill or capture some rouge MI-6 agent. I don't know much about the mission, I'm not going."

"DYLAN'S DOING WHAT?!" I said in rage and anger. Spyro and Drobot both jumped back from me. Dylan is my longtime friend since we were both five, but for him to betray me is something I thought he would never do. He knows he has to talk to me before going on missions. He is allowed to lead a team on his own, but he is never allowed to do missions without asking. He hasn't sent any message or attempted to communicate of any kind, nor has his team. "Do you know who's going on the mission," I asked trying to mask my rage.

"I think him, Dayton, Alex, Ray, Kim, Aaron, Dakota, and Domino." I couldn't believe that Dayton and Alex were both going, we went through hell together. They're more like my brothers than my real brother. Kim Whaley is Eagle Force's best sniper. She has been with Eagle Force for 3 years. She can cause death from a mile away, a perfect person to provide overwatch on missions or assist in recon when she works with Amber. Aaron Colburn is our language translator, when we go do jobs in other countries we usually need someone to help translate language. He is fluent in eight different languages and he is constantly studying more. I decided to add him after a translator provided to us by a foreign government tried have us killed. Dakota Ross is a lock-picker handling both real world locks and virtual locks. She is a skilled hacker and lock smith, she can pick even complicated locks in less than a few minutes.

"Backstabbing traitors," I whispered to myself. There better be a good reason to this betrayal. I was irate, but I had to get back to the matter at hand. "So can you come to New Mexico?" I asked Amber.

"Yeah I guess, give me a few days," she said as she yawned.

"Alright, thanks. Good night Amber."

"Bye." I touched end call on as I turned onto I-40. I was angered by this betrayal but no good would come out complaining about it now.

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Spyro's POV

We arrived in the small city last night. Jack didn't want us to stay at a hotel so he found a house in some neighborhood that he was able to rent out for a week. The house is two stories tall, and has enough bedrooms for us all. On the top floor are where all the bedrooms are at, and the bottom floor is where the living room, kitchen, and the entrance is.

I was sitting on the bed in my room watching more television to pass the time, kind of the thing you do when there is no plan to follow. I saw the door open and Drobot entered the room. I jumped off the bed and went over to him.

"So how are you enjoying your newly found freedom?" I asked Drobot. The expression on his face was dark and blank.

"You call this freedom? Being trapped on some world and being told you can't even this house or you'll cause mass hysteria on this planet's population. I didn't come in here to talk about my freedom; I came in here to talk about Jack."

"Why, what's wrong with him?"

"What do you even know about him? I mean how can we even trust him," he said.

"Believe me, I know a lot about Jack," I said remembering the long journey to the city of Santa Fe how Jack gave his life story. How he was kidnapped and forced to fight an enemy that wasn't his own. Now his family didn't want anything to do with him. I also remembered how he also didn't want me share this anybody. "Didn't he just risk his life to save you? I'm pretty sure that qualifies him that he can trusted," I pointed out to the green dragon. Drobot rolled his eyes to that statement. "He might've, but he also could've done it for his own good. Spyro think, he's a human like Kaos," he said defiantly.

"Drobot, he's a human like Master Eon. What has he done that's him untrustworthy?"

"Nothing yet, but think about it. He's the only one that heard me speaking when I was frozen. He is also the only one that was able to free us from our frozen form."

"Then that also means we have to trust him at least for now. He's provided us food and shelter—"

"At the expense of losing the right to roam freely. If you're going to trust him at least tell me one thing. If it came between saving Skylands or saving him: what would you choose?" he inquired in a serious tone.

The question caught me off guard, but it was something I have thought of on occasion. The teen has done more for me than he had to, but when it comes between saving him or saving Skylands it is a difficult choice. The thing is it shouldn't a difficult choice. I know that Jack has done wrong things in his life; he has that kind of aura. But the things that he has done weren't his choices to make. Also is one life worth a whole world's? Most of the people on Skylands have never done anything worth dying for. This world seems like it can defend itself without Jack. I walked over to the window and began to look out, I saw the branches on the trees in the backyard blow with the wind. "Drobot what you're basically asking me is if I would end Jack or Skylands," I jerked my head back towards Drobot, "If I had to chose I would end Jack in a heartbeat."

**Thanks for reading. I really hoped you enjoyed the chapter. As always, if you like or have any comments on the story please review it. And if you have any suggestions you message me. **


	9. Dogfights

**Hey everyone, I hope everyone is having a great Winter Break. I also want to again thank you for all the great reviews. **

Jack's POV

"…I would end Jack in a heartbeat," I heard Spyro say as I stood right outside the door of his room. When I heard my name pop up as I passed his room I decided to eavesdrop on their conservation. Was it moral? No, but is it also moral for Spyro to betray me. Right now I don't have time to care about Spyro's honor because I have to go to take care of my supposedly best friend's.

I walked down stairs into the living room and I grabbed the remote. I turned on the large flat screen television not caring what channel it was on. I sat down on the couch that is backed up against the wall. I opened up my laptop that I had brought with me from my home and I opened up a program that Dakota made for me. Dakota made a program that would allow me to hack into and control the computers of the members of Eagle Force. It's a bit intrusive, but I never had to use unless I had to. The program would tell me if the computer is on or not and if the computer is in active use. If the computer is in active use, then that means someone has to be using it. I had tried calling, texting, emailing, and almost every other form of communication to reach Dylan, but he has been dodging my every attempt. I wasn't gonna wait any longer.

I began to scroll down the list of names, which conveniently doesn't include Dakota's name, and found Dylan Garter. Next to his name was his computer's status. It said "Active – In Use." I double clicked his name and a few seconds my computer screen went black and Dylan's screen came up. I could tell it was his because the background on his computer was a picture of him and his family on the beach. One of the few times he could say he lived a normal life, even if it was just for a few days. Dylan had a few pictures open. One of them looked like a satellite image of a large residency, in the outskirts of London and a few more were pictures of a tall, well-built man in a suit. A few documents were opened with what looked like battle plans.

I was done screwing around with his files and I went back to his desktop and clicked on the Skype icon. The program opened up, and I saw my name on the list of contacts he had. I pressed my name and I saw the messages that me and him sent back and forth a few weeks ago. I clicked on video call and Dylan's webcam activated. When I saw him pop up on the computer screen he had a confused and perplexed look on his face. I exited the program I was using to hack into Dylan's computer and I went back to my own desktop. On the screen it gave me a notification that Dylan was calling, even though it was me. I answered the video call and the light on my webcam lit up telling me it was on.

"Remember me you dick," I said when first saw Dylan. I was filled with fury and hate for him. I don't like to be lied to or betrayed, people who do betray me usually don't live for too long.

"Jack, what the hell?!" he shouted at me for hacking into his computer.

"I thought since you have been dodging all my calls and texts, this seemed like a good way to contact you. We have to talk Dylan."

"Talk about what?" he said innocently.

"Don't play dumb with me Dylan! Amber told me that you're going to London with half of _my_ team," I yelled at him. Dylan closed eyes and sighed because of the fact that I knew what he was doing.

"Look Jack, yes I'm going to London, but you're no better for disappearing off to New Mexico with giving no one any notice."

"That's different."

"How is that any different? I get a call from you telling me that you took a job finding a stolen meteorite, and then I see on the news that the Dultra's caused a highly coordinated robbery in Santa Fe. It doesn't take a genius to realize you had something to do with that."

"Yes, Dylan congratulations I was involved with that," I said very sarcastically. "I offered my services to help protect people of that city, but I didn't take half of Eagle Force to assassinate some MI-6 agent."

"So what you're saying the rules don't apply to you."

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" I shouted. I always thought that they shouldn't apply to me since I'm the one to govern Eagle Force. I'm the one decides who is allowed to join Eagle Force, I'm the one who decides where our finances go, and I'm the one who has to take the blame if someone dies. Being the commander of this team isn't easy. If I have to break the rules, then so be it.

"Screw you Jack."

"You too, asshole." I could care less about the disrespect he just gave me; he's already disrespected me by going behind my back. We stared at each other for a few minutes, not doing anything except glaring at each other's eyes with anger and hate. It's hard for me to believe that we're friends. Before Screeching Falcon, the plan that ruined my life, we were just regular kids, we hung out, played video games, and other things. But after it, we never got along like we used to. Like my brother Aiden, arguments progressed and our friendship deteriorated. The only thing that kept it together was that we worked together, whenever we're on a mission we could both trust each other not to put a bullet in the other's back.

"So you want me to cancel the mission in London?" Dylan asked after a long while.

"I already get enough crap from our government; I don't need any from the UK's." The unfortunate thing is that the mission is already plan. If I make them pull out, it'll only hurt the image of Eagle Force and we'll have repercussions from the UK.

"I guess that is the okay then."

"Yeah it is Dylan, but if ANYTHING happens it's on your ass, not mine. Understand?" I sternly said.

"Yes Jack."

"One more thing."

"What?"

"Don't ever go behind my back again!" I slammed my computer shut, thus ending the conservation with Dylan. I was furious and irate at him. He never even gave a reason for his betrayal. I'm worried that my best friend could become my worst nightmare.

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Spyro's POV

I saw Jack slam his computer shut. I've been watching on him from the staircase. Jack noticed me and I came down into the living room. "What was that about?" I asked. Jack looked at me; his eyes were filled with anger and frustration.

"Nothing, a friend of mine went behind my back and did something that I didn't want him to do. It seems like that a lot of people right now are going to stab me in the back," he said in strange tone.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"Does 'I would end Jack in a heartbeat,' ring any bells?" he said sarcastically. I felt goosebumps rise all over my body. Jack must've heard me when I was talking to Drobot.

"Jack it's not what you think."

"Oh really, because it sounded pretty clear you would kill me if you had to."

"You didn't hear the whole conversation, Drobot came in and asked me what I would pick if I had to choose between you and my planet," I said. Jack just stared at me with an embittered grimace on his face. "Oh come on Jack, if you were asked the same question I guarantee you would choose Earth over me any time of the day. So don't complain about me when you would clearly do the same thing," I bellowed. I don't want to ever have to betray him, but if I had to choose a side to be loyal to it would have to be my home. Jack has done a lot for me and I can't forget that. If I had to let one live and another die I would have to let Jack die in order to save my planet. My job is to make sure my world is safe, unfortunately it isn't. Odds are I'll never be in a position to make that choice between saving him or my planet.

Jack let out a sigh. "Alright, it's not like need that anyways. I'm already worried about my friend trying to cause a civil war within Eagle Force. I don't need to look over my shoulder to make sure a dragon isn't going to stab me in the back," he said.

"So are we okay?" I asked.

"We're good I suppose."

I noticed Drobot walking down the stairs and he came toward us. He's been very untrusting of Jack, but I can't blame. Being asked to trust someone he barely knows, being told that he has to wait until he can go home. It hasn't been easy for me either, but what Jack has done for me is enough to earn my trust.

"What was all that shouting about?" Drobot asked as he entered the room.

"It's complicated," Jack answered.

"Well okay then. I just came down with a question."

"What?" I asked. Drobot turned his head to Jack.

"Jack, how were you able to free the both of us? It has been boggling my mind that you were able to free the both of us, but the rest of the Skylanders are trapped as toys."

"Again, I don't know it was probably just a coincidence and for all we know more of your friends are free. They might be in hiding."

"That's highly improbable. When I was trapped in there was some kind of magical force that kept me from moving that wasn't broken until we met. Plus you were the only one who I could communicate with when I was frozen, and I would assume it would've been the same situation with Spyro. So either way it has something to do with you," said Drobot. I agree with Drobot, Jack does have something to do with the Skylanders although I wish I knew what he did.

"Well even if I was the reason you both are free, I don't know what I did. Let's just worry about it another time; we still have to deal with situation about getting you both back to your world."

"I agree, the longer we spend here, the longer Kaos has control of our home. I'm pretty sure all of the Skylanders will understand if they have to wait a while before we could get them," I said. All of the Skylanders know that they have to put the safety of our world before their own.

"That sounds good and all, but we're still missing the plan that involves getting the portal to work," said Jack.

"I've been thinking about that. I have a few theories, but I would have to see the Portal of Power in person to confirm any of them," said Drobot. Jack had a discouraged look on his face.

"That's impossible. It was difficult to just get Spyro into the museum; I can't risk trying to send the both of you in," he said.

"Jack I know it sounds dangerous, but it's not like we're getting anything accomplished by staying here," I stated.

"Yeah, but we would also not get anything accomplished by exposing you the both of you to the public," countered Jack.

"Drobot and I are the aliens, not you. So you wouldn't be the one taking the risk, we would be taking it," I challenged.

"No I would be taking the risk. Do you really think nobody will care that I'm harboring aliens. I'm pretty sure if you got exposed a lot of 'nice, friendly people' in suits will be paying me a few visits," jeered Jack.

"Why don't we just take it? It's not like it would be considered stealing since it doesn't even belong to them," interrupted Drobot. The thought never crossed my mind about taking; it seems like a dangerous idea though.

"Because I don't want to be arrested for trying to steal a 2,000 pound rock."

"Do you guys have any better ideas?" asked Drobot. Jack and I stood dead silent for a few minutes. We don't know what to do, an incredibly risky idea. If we pull it off we would have complete access to it, and not have to worry as much about being exposed to the rest of the world if we accomplish the heist. But there are so many hazards; if we fail we would lose our only way home.

"Actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea," said Jack after our long period of silence.

"Really?" I said in shock.

"Yeah, but there are a couple of problems with the idea. Firstly, if we do pull it off we have nowhere to put the portal. We would have to keep it in an unpopulated, deserted area. Using a storage unit wouldn't be a smart idea. Second, transporting this thing won't be easy. I would have to work on finding some large vehicle that can haul that sort of weight. Lastly, that thing is heavy, which could be solved using heavy machinery, but it's loud and noisy. It'll draw a lot of attention. Now if I have some time I can handle the first two problems, but, unless you two look strong than you look, you'll have to figure out a solution to the last."

Drobot and I pondered over this idea for a while. I don't think Drobot could build anything that could silently lift huge items with the materials we have access to. The thought occurred to me that a Skylander could be able to pick up something that large, but it would forever to find another one. I also remember how difficult it was to get Drobot. But portals are incredibly heavy; it would take a great machine to pick one up.

"Bash," said Drobot.

"What?" asked Jack.

"Bash isn't a thing; he's a Skylander like me and Drobot. He's a brown, wingless dragon. He's an Earth dragon, and he would definitely be strong enough to pick up the portal, but we don't know how long it would take to find him," I said.

"Well I did find the green dragon within a day."

"Yeah because you got lucky that he was right next door."

"All I'm saying, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna need someone we can trust that can lift something that large quickly and quietly. We can't risk going in there again, the renovation is probably complete and so it would open for business for the public. We also can't risk going for a peak at night since they amped up the security. So Spyro we probably shouldn't take stealing it off the table."

"But you just said we can't go in there at night, and you also said it's also too dangerous to go in there during the day."

"Okay let me rephrase, I might be able for us to get in there one time at the dead of night. It won't be easy, and it might only buy a few minutes. But it should be enough to get the portal out before people come."

"I don't know, it's still a big risk. I don't think we should be gambling on our only way home," I said in fear. If we lose the portal, we lose our only hope. Drobot, me, and the rest of the Skylanders we'll be trapped on this planet forever.

"Don't worry Spyro," Jack began to say, "This time we will be ready."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
Jack's POV

A few has passed, all of us have completely bored with very little to do. I keep finding myself walking around the perimeter of the house, and other times I find myself constantly cleaning the guns that I still had ammunition for. I've also scouting the internet for the Skylander called Bash. So far the search hasn't been easy. So far it hasn't been easy finding him. Unlike Drobot, there isn't much to go on. I used the website that helped me get a location on Drobot, and I did learn that Bash fell somewhere near Ohio, but other than that not much else. I had a location, but I had no other helpful information. Plus we don't have the time to drive another 1500 miles for a guess at where the figurine is. I don't want to pass on this job to Eagle Force again. It's already been a hectic time trying to keep leadership in check.

I walked to the front door and checked the pistol that I had kept next to the door for safe measure. I checked its ammunition and reloaded it. I put the gun back in the basket that was on the table next to the door and I went back into the living room. I turned on the television and I sank back into the couch to have a few moments of relaxation. It's not something that I get to have that often. I was try to allow myself to have few seconds of not having to worry a bullet will come piercing through my skull. I picked up the fine, American cuisine of fast food and took a few bites of it. Spyro and Drobot hate the food I get, but when you're on a limited budget and not many options, you take what you can get.

My cell phone began to vibrate and I picked it up off the coffee table. Amber texted me "Just arrived in NM. I'll be there in a few hours." I got up off the couch and put the food back onto the coffee table. I went up to the second floor to go warn Spyro and Drobot that Amber would arrive here soon and they would need to stay up on the second floor for a while. I opened up the door to Spyro's room, and caught him sleeping on the bed. He's still trying to regain the energy that he had drained from bringing down the helicopters in Santa Fe and for flying around the entire city. "Spyro," I shouted. He jolted awake and quickly began scanning the room for any danger. When his eyes met mine he slumped back onto the bed and closed his eyes. "What Jack?" he grudgingly said.

"I just wanted to say that you need to stay up here in your room for a while; I have a friend coming over for a supply drop."

"Do I have to do anything else?"

"No."

"Fine, and get out."

I rolled my eyes as Spyro began to fall asleep. I closed the door and walked down the hall to Drobot's room. I opened his door and saw him tinkering with some of the electronics in the room. He saw me in the corner of his, he signaled me to come in. "Can I help you?" he angrily said. Spyro had told me about Drobot's distrust of me. I won't penalize him for it. I can understand having to trust people you barely know, it isn't easy. "Yeah, just have to say that you're gonna have to stay up here for the next few hours. A friend of mine will arrive soon," I said. Drobot let out a low, daunting growl. He walked away from his makeshift workshop. "Of course," he exasperated.

"What?"

"You already took away most of my freedom; you might as well lock me in a prison cell."

"Last time I checked I gave you your freedom. And if this was a prison, it would be the nicest prison in the world. This is only for a few hours Drobot, so stop complaining."

"This isn't freedom, this is a prison. We walk around trapped in a home that isn't ours, have 3 square meals a day, and if we're lucky we get to go out onto the yard for an hour. I don't know how you convinced Spyro to trust you, but don't think that I do," he pestered.

"You're better off than what you were a few days ago, and do I have to remind about how many times I nearly died just to get you out of the bank. You're also better than your other friends. So please just stay up here for a while and continue doing whatever you're doing," I objected. Drobot looked at me with an annoyed face. I began to close the door when another thought occurred in my mind. "Drobot, the reason that Spyro trusts me is because I'm his best hope for returning to your world."

**Thanks for reading. The chapter would've been longer, but I will soon be going on a vacation for a little while and I won't be able to upload. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. If you like the chapter, please give it a review. **


	10. Discovery

**Happy New Year everyone, I hope everyone is sticking to their resolutions. Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I didn't expect to get a new computer for Christmas, and it screwed me up on my writing. And I also thank you for all the reviews I got for chapter nine; it really does help me write.**

I was in the garage looking down at the table. I was looking at information of an art gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After contacting a few people within the FBI who owed me a few favors I was able to learn that Bash was taken by a man named James Rison. I received the call shortly after Amber sent me the text message that she would arrive soon. Earlier I did a background check on him. I learned that he was an upcoming artist that lived in the state. He went to Ohio about a week ago for a family reunion and he must've found the toy on the trip. I've seen a few of his works on the internet and he mostly dabbles in paintings and does a few sculptures. In a few days I learned that he is going to reveal a new painting at an art gallery called Castaway Gallery. If I can find him there I might be able to convince him to hand over Bash to me.

The garage door is open and I could see out into the entire neighborhood. At the end of the street I saw a dark, red Charger turn into the neighborhood. There are four people in the car, each carrying a submachine gun. The car backed into the driveway, and out came Amber and other members of Eagle Force. "I thought you were the only one coming," I said as Amber exited out of her car. Out of the car came her, Domino Knott, Scarlett Avrett, and Riley Journey. Scarlett is our explosive expert. She has an extensive knowledge on explosives knowing everything from defusing bombs to making makeshift bombs out of household objects. Riley Journey is a very confident forger. She has the ability to give us perfected fake identities for missions. She also can take control of other people's identities. She has the talent for copying signatures that could even give some of the best handwriting analyzers a run for their money.

"When you're driving around across the country with the kind of hardware you tend to be a little cautious," she said. I stared at Domino as he came out of the car; he glared back at me with eyes filled with sorrow and regret.

"Aren't you supposed to be in London with Dylan?" I asked Domino.

"When you confronted him about the mission I took a long look at what we were doing. Dylan didn't want me on the team in the first place; I only got in because of Dayton said I was ready. I didn't like going behind your back, and when you found out I dropped out of the mission. I figured it wasn't worth losing the trust of my leader," he said. I was a little surprised that he backed out the mission. Domino has been asking to go on bigger missions. So far the ones he has been have been small, low risk jobs. Although, he is improving, but it takes a while for me to make sure if he can take the risk of such an operation.

"Domino I'm going to admit that you going behind my back lowered my trust in you, but you admitting your fault and backing out the mission did gain some of it back," I said in a forgiving tone. One of the reasons I added Domino to Eagle Force was the trust I had in him. I knew since I was in the first grade. He always had my back even when I returned from Green Lightning, which was when barely any of my old friends wanted to have to do anything with me. I kept off adding him for so long because I didn't want to see him get killed because of me.

"Thanks Jack," said Domino.

Amber opened up the trunk and began to grab all the weapons that she brought. She brought more firearms than I had asked for. She sat three more assault rifles onto the tables in addition to the ACR and M4A1 that I still had. Scarlett continued by bringing in a couple of large containers each filled with different ammunition for my guns. "I asked for a resupply, not a freaking arsenal," I said to Amber.

"There's more," said Riley who was standing right next to me. Amber and Domino brought in two MP5 submachine guns and a few handguns. "I can see why you decided to bring extra security," I said in amazement. These guns are expensive and it makes me think how difficult it was to acquire them. You can't get these weapons on the civilian market. That's why Ray is such a key member of Eagle Force; he has methods that help us gain access to these kinds of guns.

"I appreciate the work you did Amber, but I'm not going to war. I only need a resupply on ammunition for the guns I brought and some more cash for—"

"Damn it, I forgot to pick the money. I didn't want carry around a pile of cash with the guns so I made a wire transfer to a local bank. Scarlett take my car and go the bank and pick it up," she said as she tossed the keys to her car to Scarlett. "Bring Riley with you," Amber added.

Riley and Scarlett left the garage and drove the red Charger out of the neighborhood. Above me I heard a crash come down on the floor above me. Domino and Amber looked up with me. "What was that?" asked Domino. That didn't sound good. I wondered what Spyro and Drobot were doing. I told them to keep quiet, but instead they decided to do the opposite. "We should probably check that out," said Amber. She made her way towards the door, but I quickly grabbed her arm. "I'm pretty sure it was nothing, and the person I'm renting the house from said he didn't want anyone to go up to the second floor," I lied to both Amber and Domino. She yanked her arm out of my grasp. Amber went over to the table and noticed the information on Castaway Gallery and James Rison. She picked up the assault rifle that covered the information, and then grabbed the files I had on the gallery and Rison.

"Is this what you're doing?" she asked as she looked over it.

"Sort of. It found itself onto my plate of work," I said. I began think over the amount work that I still have to do. I have to get the Skylander from this artist, steal the portal to Spyro's world, and find a place to house the giant portal. Plus the work in the unforeseen future.

"What exactly are you doing?" asked Domino.

"I think it's safer for all of us if you don't know," I said.

"Since whenever have we been safe," jokingly said Amber. She did have a point; no one in Eagle Force is ever completely safe, even when we're not on a mission. I saw a subtle, angered grimace starting to protrude onto Domino's face. "Jack I drove a 1000 miles to give you a resupply. I figure we deserve at least an answer," Amber said with a tint of animosity in her voice. I didn't know what to tell her. I don't want her to tell the truth, but I also don't want to lie. But I also can't break Spyro's trust.

"Amber, remember when you called me a few days ago and I said you didn't want to get involved with this. Well trust me; you _really_ don't want to be involved with this."

"I never asked to participate in your mission, I asked what you were doing. I hear from Dylan that because of the information I gave you back when you were in Santa Fe got you involved in a bank robbery. Stop being so secretive with us."

"Amber's right, whatever you're doing you don't have to have to do it alone. We're a team for a reason," Domino sternly added.

"Domino, I appreciate you wanting to help, but both of you wouldn't believe a thing I would say. So can you please just drop it?" Abruptly, I heard another crash from above, but this one was much louder. Domino and Amber gawked at me with eyes with anger and concern. "Jack what are you hiding from us?!" shouted Amber. I didn't know how to respond, there was no logical answer I could give them. I stood there for a few moments glaring into their eyes.

"I'm not hiding anything."

"JACK STOP LYING!" they both shouted.

"I love the fact that you get mad at Dylan for lying about the London mission, but it's completely okay for you to leave us all behind and go across the country and do whatever you want like nobody would notice," complained Domino.

"Shut up Domino. When you lead Eagle Force you can make all the decisions you want, don't make me regret adding you onto Eagle Force," I yelled.

"Lay off him Jack. He backed off a mission that would've betrayed your trust, and traveled 1100 miles with me to give you a resupply for some mission you haven't told anyone about. You talk about how you hate betrayal and dishonesty of your friends, but you're doing exactly that right now," challenged Amber. The atmosphere of the room changed. I felt like I fell from the top of a building and crashed hard on the ground. They had every right to criticize me. "Why are you acting like this?" questioned Amber.

"Because Jack is helping me!" I turned my head towards the doorway and what I saw was the purple dragon standing at the threshold with his held up at the anger of my distrust.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
Spyro's POV  
15 Minutes Earlier

I woke up at the sound of a large crash from Drobot's room, I ran over to his room and bashed into it to see the problem. I saw Drobot next the wreckage of a broken lamp. "What happened?" I asked as I walked towards him. Drobot's eyes were filled with rage and exasperation.

"I don't understand it Spyro."

"Understand what?"

"How can you keeping trusting Jack?" Here we go again; this was the subject that Drobot kept bringing up over the past few days.

"I trust him Drobot so stop trying to make me change my opinion of him. He's done more for us than anybody else on this planet; he's even going to help us steal a portal back to our home. What does he have to do to earn your trust?"

"For starters he could be honest with his team."

"What do you mean?"

"How can you trust him even if his own team doesn't trust him? Remember a few nights ago when he was talking to his friend, and how Jack got irate when he discovered he was going behind his back even though he's doing the same thing. Teammates don't betray their own unless they don't trust their leader," he said. Drobot did have a point. It never had occurred that Jack is going the back of his team, Eagle Force. The sad thing this is partially my fault. Jack is taking a big risk in trusting me. I might've saved his life, but in return he freed me and Drobot from our frozen states, risked his life by retaking Drobot, and giving us shelter. He is also taking another risk in attempting to get Bash, and then taking another risk in helping us by stealing the Portal of Power.

He's doing so much for me that he's damaging the relationship he has with his team. What is going to happen after we get back to Skylands? Will his team even trust him, will he still lead, or will he get killed because of the actions he has done to help me. I hated the idea of me being responsible for his death. This shouldn't his battle, it should be mine, but he's the one taking all force. He needs to tell them the truth or at least a few of them so they can understand what he's doing for me and Skylands. For all the crap that he has put through in his life, he deserves the trust of his friends.

There was a long period of silence between me and Drobot. I stood there looking down at the floor contemplating on what I should do. I raised my head up to Drobot and stared him directly in the eyes. "Fine, I'll go down there and talk to them," I said in a lowered tone. I turned around and went towards the door. As I was about to exit a large force fall onto my tail, I turned my head and saw Drobot's foot on it. I tried to yank it out, but he is determined to keep me from leaving.

"What are you doing?" he said with a deathly tone.

"Drobot I'm going down there to tell whoever came the truth."

"Are you insane? What do you think is going to happen once you they see you? I wanted Jack to tell them, not you."

"Well there's only one way to figure that out. Drobot you just complained on how his team is becoming wary of him, and the reason it's like that is because of us. Do you honestly think Jack will tell them? I highly doubt it; he's been keeping us in hiding ever since we met him. You might hate Jack, but guess what; you and I wouldn't be standing here right now if it wasn't for him. No matter how you look at it; without Jack, Skylands wouldn't have any hope. Because of him, we have a fighting chance," I stated. Drobot didn't respond; all he did was tighten his grip on my tail.

"Let go of me Drobot."

"No, Jack has to be the one to tell them."

"Jack will never tell them, I need to go done there and tell them who we are."

"And what if it doesn't go the way you plan?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," I gulped. I wasn't sure what the future would hold if I went through with this, but it has to be done. Maybe if a few more people know, they would be inclined to help us get back to Skylands.

I tried pulling my tail out of Drobot's grasp, but it wouldn't budge. "Drobot let go of my tail," I demanded. He stared at me with defiance in his eyes. "No," he sternly said. He wasn't going to let me leave the room without force.

"You know what I'm going to do if you don't let me go," I warned.

"I'd like to see you try."

"I warned you."

I headbutted Drobot and he fell back onto the ground. He got up and tackled me onto the floor. He wrestled me onto my back and attempted to restrain me. I used my hind legs and I threw him into the end table next to the bed. He crashed into it causing an earth shaking sound and he gave up on attempting to keep me from reaching my goal. I might've won, but he stared at me as if I am about to do the wrong thing. This is something that has to be done.

"I hope you're doing the right thing Spyro," Drobot said as I exited the room.

"I am Drobot."

I walked down the stairs and passed through the living room. I could hear the sounds of shouting and anger as I progressed to the garage. What is going on in there?

"Jack what are you hiding from us?" said the sounds of a girl. This must've been Amber. I remember Jack calling her when we were traveling to Tucumcari. I became alerted when she said us signaling that there is more than just her and Jack in there. They must've become aware that Jack was hiding me and Drobot, but, from what I can tell, they don't know we're foreign to this world.

"I'm not hiding anything," he responded.

"JACK STOP LYING," Amber and another voice shouted.

"I love the fact that you get mad at Dylan for lying about the London mission, but it's completely okay for you to leave us all behind and go across the country and do whatever you want like nobody would notice," complained the second voice.

"Shut up Domino. When you lead Eagle Force you can make all the decisions you want, don't make me regret adding you onto Eagle Force," shouted Jack. So Domino is the name of the second person. I hated this feud between Jack and the others. He's even using his position of power to try and keep them at bay. I contemplated on what I should do.

"Lay off him Jack. He backed off a mission that would've betrayed your trust, and traveled 1100 miles with me to give you a resupply for some mission you haven't told anyone about. You talk about how you hate betrayal and dishonesty of your friends, but you're doing exactly that right now," defended Amber. She made me think of how hypocritical Jack is, and how the only reason he is like that is because of me. I couldn't stand it anymore. I started to open the door, none of them noticed me.

"Why are you acting like this?" asked Amber.

"Because Jack is helping me!"

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter. This chapter was difficult to write, and I had gotten writers block on it. So if you like it I definitely would appreciate a review for it. **


	11. Understandings

**Hey everyone, this is probably the quickest upload I have done in a while. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

Domino's POV

Amber held her gun towards the abominable creature that just entered the garage. So this is what he has been hiding. I can understand why he's been so secretive, but why is he helping this thing? "Jack what the hell is that thing?" stuttered Amber. Jack drew his gun and aimed it at Amber's head. "Amber put down the gun," he calmly said. "I can explain everything." I carefully led my hand towards my side while keeping my eyes trained on Jack. I inconspicuously turned the safety off on my gun and kept a firm grasp on it, ready to draw and take a shot on him if I had to. What kind of mind control was this thing doing to Jack? I know Jack is a complicated person, but I do know he would never harm anyone of us.

"Listen I know this is strange to the both you, but just listen to me. Now Amber, _please_ put the gun down," said Jack.

"Not until you tell what it is," she responded.

My eyes diverted towards the purple monstrosity standing at the doorway. It stood there standing in dead silence. "He's a dragon, don't worry he's friendly. He won't harm us," carefully said Jack. Both of them began to slowly lower their weapons. Jack holstered his weapon while Amber kept hers firmly in her hand. The monster walked slowly into the garage and it made its way toward the center of the room to address us.

"My name is Spyro, I know you are all confused on what's going on, but believe me it's a long story. So can we please go inside? Jack and I will explain everything," said the purple beast. For some reason, me and Amber followed in his directions and entered into the house with Jack. I couldn't tell why he is helping this dragon.

I remember how Jack got mad at Dylan for him going behind his back. Do I have the same right to be mad at Jack for him doing the same thing? He went behind our backs, drove across the country, held a gun to Amber's head, and harbored the strangest creature to roam the Earth. What is it doing here? I could only think that he wants to dominate the entire world, and he somehow got Jack to go along with him, like the beast offered Jack a powerful position in his bloody empire.

We walked into the living room, and Amber and I sat on the couch while Jack and the purple abomination sat on the chairs opposite of each other. We were all huddled around a coffee table. I turned my head to Jack and saw anger in his face, but I couldn't tell if it was directed towards me and Amber or at Spyro. One thing for sure is that Jack has a short fuse; it doesn't take much for him to blow.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
Jack's POV

I had to tell them the whole story. Everything from how I met Spyro in Panama City to how we broke into the museum and we found the failed portal to my suicide attempt on recapturing the meteorite. Spyro had to explain to them what happened before we met, on how the rest of the Skylanders got frozen down to the size of a toy, what a Skylander actually is, and on why they can't go home. He also had to give a brief history on his planet, Skylands. Then I had to tell them that the information that Amber saw out in the garage was involved with what we were doing.

I was enraged at Spyro for what he has done. I knew there was a risk bringing Amber here for a resupply, but I thought I had made it pretty clear that I wanted both of the dragons to stay up stairs for the whole duration of her visit. I was already worried about Dylan because of what he had done, but clearly I shouldn't have been worried about him. I should've kept my eyes on Spyro. This is a clear betrayal of my trust. For all the things I have done for him, this is how repays me; by doing something I exactly told him not to do. I could've expected this from Drobot, but I never would have thought that Spyro would do this. I would have to deal with him later; right now I had to deal with Amber and Domino.

"So the dragon crashed through the roof of a warehouse, just right after you had a gun fight with three of the Dultras. He was a toy that could talk to you, and then magically grew into what he is now," said Domino.

"Yeah."

"Then he left, and shortly after one of the Dultras you shot came charging after you and nearly choked you death. And miraculously Spyro came back and killed the Dultra, as you were near the edge of death," added Amber.

"Again, yes."

"It's kind of hard to believe."

"You're not the one who had to live through it. You don't know how many times I doubted myself on this whole trip. Every day since I met Spyro I wondered if I was losing my mind, at least now I know I'm not," I confessed. I am a person that has to keep secrets from people. It is painful to keep them from my friends, but it's just as painful as telling them. You have to reveal that you lied to them, that you went behind their back. All you can hope for is that they understand your reasons, and you can earn back their trust.

"Is that it?" asked Amber.

"Not exactly, there's still one more thing you have to see. Spyro go upstairs and get Drobot."

Spyro leapt off the chair and climbed the stairs to the second floor. A few minutes later he returned with the green dragon. Amber eyes had an unsurprised look on them. "That's the same dragon that was the meteorite that I helped you find, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," I replied. Amber shook her head with the stress that I have put on her. She doesn't deserve it, nor does Domino.

"That's everything. Now since you got to ask all your questions, I need to ask my own."

"Okay," Amber drawled. Domino had a nervous grimace on his face.

"Do you still trust me?" I asked. It was something that I had to know. If my teammates can't trust me, then working with them will never be the same. In my line of work, if you can't trust the people you work with, then you're as good as dead. I was worried that I was turning into Dylan, the same person who went behind my back. Instead I was worse, I betrayed my whole my team not just one person. If their answer is no, I'm going to fight like hell to earn it back. I looked at Amber she didn't have a forgiving look. I turned my head towards Domino; he had a blank expression on his face. Like his decision is on the borderline of yes and no.

"No Jack," answered Amber. At that moment, I felt like a bullet had ripped through my entire chest, breaking every possible bone in its path. I'm not surprised by her answer. I had used her to do all the work that I needed done. Finding Drobot, giving me a resupply, not asking about what I was doing.

"Can I at least ask why?" I asked. A stupid question, but an answer I need to hear.

"I can get past that you were hiding two aliens, and I can also get past that you used me in this scheme of yours, but you held a gun to my head. Did you think that I would forget that? You were going to kill me to save this, this abomination," she shouted.

I pulled out my handgun and slid out the magazine. I tossed it over to Amber, her eyes lit up with shock as she caught it. "There was no ammunition in my gun," I stated.

"One in the chamber?"

"Check for yourself," I said. I slid the gun across the coffee table to her. She checked the gun, and she relieved that I was telling the truth. "Amber you know me; I would kill myself before I would even consider killing you." The expression on her face changed from hating me to one of understanding. I still couldn't decide if she was willing to keep this secret between all of us, or go and spread this secret to the whole world.

"So what about now, can you still trust me?" I begged. There was a long period of silence as Amber contemplated her answer. I was praying for her answer to be yes, but my wants won't decide her answer. The long waiting was torturing me, as her answer could decide what could happen in the future. After a while she raised her head, and she began to answer my question. "Fine, I still trust you, for now. Jack I'll keep this quiet, but you have to promise me that this is everything. There are no more secrets between all of us," she said.

"There's nothing else Amber, I promise," I said. I had told Amber and Domino all the information, including my plans to steal the portal from the museum. I have committed many crimes, stealing the portal from the museum would be one of my most dangerous attempts. I would have to figure out a way to disable the security system, sneak Bash into the museum once we rescue him, and work on a way to transport the large artifact.

There is still one person I wasn't sure if he still trusted me or not: Domino. I hated to put him in the middle of this. He doesn't deserve this, even if he did almost go behind my back. "What about you Domino, are we still okay?" I asked. Domino, like Amber, took a few moments to decide whether or not if he can keep this a secret and if I was still worth trusting. "If Amber still trusts you, even after all we've heard, then I still trust you," answered Domino. I am relieved to hear him say that as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

"Thanks Domino."

"Does this make us even?"

"Trust me, it does," I stated. Domino nodded his head appreciation. It was the least he deserved. Now I had to ask more from the both of them.

"Thanks guys, you don't know how much that makes me feel, but both of you can't tell anyone. Not your family, not your friends, and definitely no one in Eagle Force. It's hard enough keeping this quiet, and I'm beginning to worry that Dylan is getting suspicious. The London mission bought me some time with him. If anyone asks you what I'm doing just say it's a secret operation of some sorts."

"Alright Jack, you made it pretty clear that you don't want anyone to know," said Domino.

"And one more thing, I'm going to need your help with these two missions. I am going to need some backup on when I go to Rison. He's not going to listen to a teenager to hand over the Skylander. Amber you asked me if I wanted your help, and well now I do. And Domino you asked to go on bigger missions, well believe me, robbing this museum is a huge job," I said. This is something that I was going to need help on; I didn't know how I would be able to do these jobs on my own.

"It's kind of ironic that you want our help right after we discover your dirty little secret," said Amber.

"It's not like I didn't want your help. It's just I didn't want you to keep constantly questioning what I was doing."

"I hate to interrupt, but what about Riley and Scarlett. They're going to back soon, and they are going to wonder why we would be staying for another mission. Unless you're gonna tell them Jack," said Domino. I had forgotten about Riley and Scarlett; they had left for the cash a while ago. The series of events that had happened within the last hour had made me turn my mind towards other worries. I don't I want to tell them, at least not yet. The way Amber reacted to the sight of Spyro made me think about the way both Scarlett and Riley would act. If Amber and Domino agreed to assist me, we would have to come up with a way to get them home. If I bring both of them along, it will just make Scarlett and Riley question what I am doing. "I don't think it's such a good idea to tell them. Amber barely resisted pulling the trigger on Spyro, and I know that Scarlett is a little impulsive. For now, we don't tell them. We need to figure out a way to get them to go home, but let's get back to the topic on hand. Do you want to help me on this?" I asked.

"Well I guess I could stick around and help. I don't have any plans scheduled anytime soon. What about you Domino?" said Amber. I was relieved to get Amber's help; she is one of Eagle Force's most experienced members. Somebody I definitely I want to have by my side.

"I'm okay to go if you want the help Jack, but would the two dragons be coming with us? I'm still trying to get used to the fact that they even exist."

"No, I don't want them to come to the art gallery with us. There would too much risk; they would exposed to the world," I said. I received a deathly glare from Drobot, the same dragon that doesn't want to trust me. I owe Spyro, I don't owe him anything. "Remember I am doing this for you Drobot."

"Well if we're coming with you, when would we be leaving for Albuquerque?" asked Amber. An email had just been sent to my cell phone. When I learned about the gallery, I signed up for the newsletter just in case there had been any schedule changes.

"Early tomorrow morning. We have a three hour drive until we reach Castaway Gallery. I just learned that his art reveal has been moved up to tomorrow. This place has a high class dress code, so we'll have dress formal," I said while I was looking down at my cell phone.

"Jack I didn't bring any formal attire," stated Amber.

"Me neither," added Domino.

"Don't worry we'll stop by a tailor on our way and buy something," I said. Like most kids my age, I hate wearing suits, but sometimes it comes with the job.

I heard the sound of a car approaching the driveway. All of us stood up and looked out the window. I saw Scarlett and Riley exit the car. "Amber, Domino go and distract them while I escort Spyro and Drobot upstairs," I said. Spyro and Drobot gave me a bewildered stare. "Alright," said Amber as the both of them got up and went outside. I climbed up the stairs with both of the dragons and Drobot went towards his room and closed his door.

Spyro and I went into his room. I began to close the door as we both entered into the bedroom. "You know I could've walked up here by myself, I didn't need your help," debated Spyro.

"WHAT THE HELL SPYRO!" I shouted the second I closed the door.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid with me! Why did you do that, do you have any idea what could've happened?!" I bellowed. I looked at him with a foul grimace dawned upon on my face. I was so disgusted my Spyro had done. I was able to mask my rage and anger for him in front of Amber and Domino. I never could imagine that he would be the one to betray me, let alone risk his life. The look on his face changed when he realized what I was talking about.

"Jack just listen—"

"I love to hear your reason for this," I interrupted.

"If you would let me explain, I did this for you. You were betraying your friends to help me and Drobot. I couldn't take another second of you lying to them to help me. I also couldn't stomach the idea of you dying because of me, you needed the help," he shouted. Spyro does have a point; it's hard enough keeping this secret from the rest of Eagle Force. Stress kept building up on me with every passing day; with a couple of other people knowing about this, I don't have to keep the burden of this all to myself. But still this doesn't excuse for what he has done, things could've gone in a horrible direction.

"You might've done what you thought was right, but you should've at least given me the courtesy of asking me."

"And what were the odds of you actually agreeing with me?"

"Probably low, but that still doesn't excuse what you've done. Do you know what could've happened if Amber pulled the trigger."

"But she didn't."

"But what if she did. You would be dead on the ground, and I saw the look in Domino's eyes. He would've shot me in fear that I would've killed her. Both of us could've been dead, you risked my life Spyro. And now she barely trusts me because of you," I said in anger. Spyro shrank back a little after he realized what could've happened, but it didn't stop him from thinking what he did was right.

"Jack she barely trusted when I heard you talking out there, and why is everything a game of trust with you?"

"Because if you can't trust your friends, then how can you trust them with your life. Because of you I'm not even sure if they'll want to trust me."

"Jack I'm sorry, but now we can use this to your advantage. You have people that agreed to help us," Spyro said as if this was a good thing. Amber and Domino only agreed to help me on the two missions I have lined up: Rison and stealing the portal. After that I don't know what they are going to do.

"Spyro I've already given you a break when I heard what you said to Drobot a couple of nights ago, and I don't know why, but I'll forgive you on this. The only reason I was helping you was because you saved my life, but after I convinced Amber to lower her gun we're now even. I don't owe you anything anymore. I'll continue to help you until you get back to Skylands. I don't want to be the reason your entire world will fall, but just know this. Do anything like what you did today, we'll be finished. You can find your own way home."

**Thanks for reading; I hoped you enjoyed the chapter. Again, this was another one of those chapters which was difficult to write, so I hoped it sounded good. The reason I was able to upload faster was because I had found more time to write. If you like the chapter, please be awesome and leave a review. **


	12. The Battle-Scarred Warriors

**Hey everybody, I wish that I could've got this chapter uploaded last weekend, but it turned out to be longer than I thought. So I hope this chapter makes up for my short absence. **

"Are you ready for this?"

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous," admitted Domino.

Amber, Domino, and I are in my Mustang parked right outside Castaway Gallery. I was in the driver's seat, Amber is in the passenger's seat, and Domino is in the back. We had left the house at around 6:00 A.M. and arrived in Albuquerque a few hours later. Domino and Amber were able to get Scarlett and Riley to fly home shortly after they went to distract them. Spyro and I didn't speak for the rest of that night. I needed a break from him; I didn't even want to be in the same place as him. The sleeping arrangements of last night were jumbled up. I slept in the master bedroom like usual. Spyro, trying to atone for what he had done, lent his room to Amber. He slept down stairs in the living room with Domino. Domino said he had to sleep with one eye open. With good reason, Domino and Amber are still trying to adjust with them, but they said if I trusted them, then they can trust Drobot and Spyro. Although, I'm still not sure if I can trust them.

"Don't worry, let's go over the plan one more time," I said. I pulled out my cell phone and went into the pictures. "We're looking for a man named James Rison. He's 26 years old and is 5'11," I slid my finger across the screen of my phone and went to the next picture. "Rison recently went to Ohio, and found this meteorite. We need to separate and search the art gallery and find him. Once one of us finds him, alert the rest of us. After that, we try to convince him to hand it over, lie to him if we have to," I spoke aloud to Amber and Domino.

"What if doesn't want to hand it over?" inquired Domino.

"Then we force him. It's okay if we have to strongarm him. Once we get the statuette; we nonchalantly leave the gallery, and go back to the house in Tucumcari. I sent the pictures I have of Bash and James Rison to your phones so check if you want. If everything goes to plan, we shouldn't have to worry about anything." I checked the time on the radio. "We should get going; the art reveal begins at 10:30. That's the best time where gonna spot him."

Amber got out and folded down the passenger's seat to let Domino out of the back. She folded it back up, and slammed the door shut. I popped the trunk as I got out of the car. I gestured them to go to follow me to the trunk. I opened up the trunk and unzipped a small black bag that I kept in there. I retrieved three small earpieces. "Here put these on, we need to stay in constant contact. Let's go in, we got about 15 minutes," I said as I put on the small earpiece. It's small enough that it could fit in our ears, but it is inconspicuous to the human eye. We walked a little ways to the art gallery.

There is a line forming outside Castaway Gallery. People were outside accepting admission tolls to enter. Domino was readjusting his tie while I was using my phone as mirror to straighten out my hair. While we were traveling to Albuquerque, we stopped at a small thrift shop to buy formal attire. Castaway Gallery has a strict high-class dress code. They want to maintain their reputation as being one of the most prestigious art galleries in the country. This is one of the for-profit galleries, they get artists to agree to showcase their art and sell it in an auction setting. Once the art is sold the gallery gets a 35% commission. This place commonly only accepts the most famous of artists; this is James Rison's second time.

We approached the front of the line and the admission taker began to scrutinize all of us. He has a look of suspicion in his eyes. I pulled the money out of my wallet, and he accepted it, but as we tried to enter the art gallery he stopped us. "We don't get too many teenagers here. What are you three doing here?" he asked. Amber looked at me with worry, and I had been skeptical of the idea that we would be able to enter the gallery without conflict. "My dad told me to meet him here," I lied. The man looked at us with even more apprehension. "Who are you three?" he demanded.

"I'm Taylor; this is my sister Kristy, and my friend Aston," I answered calmly. The skill of lying is difficult to master, but when you have been doing it as long as I have, it comes natural. I didn't want to use our real names. "Are you going to let us in, or am I just wasting my time?" I asked. He looked over me for another few seconds. "Welcome to Castaway Gallery," he reluctantly said. Amber and Domino were able to enter into the building, but the man stopped me. "Don't try anything kid," he stated. I rolled my eyes and entered into the art gallery. I made my way towards my friends.

"Let's spread out. Domino take the room on the right, Amber keep checking this room, I'll go to the one on the left. Let's meet back here when they start the reveal," I whispered. We quickly dispersed into the different areas we're assigned. The art gallery is separated into three different areas. The center room is where the do the art reveals and the auctions. They also showcase some of the current artist's work to entice the potential buyers to bid high. This is where most of the people are currently at. The other two rooms are just small museums filled with art from the gallery's best artists.

I walked into the room and it's mostly empty except for a few people. I walked around just looking at some of the paintings that are hanging off the wall, and at the sculptures that are the middle of the room that are blocked off by red velvet ropes. Most of the art looks magnificent, while some of them didn't look deserving of their price tag. One of the paintings has a tree standing in a seemingly vacant meadow. The leaves on the tree were falling gracefully with the wind, but the setting seemed to be spring. This is the time where the tree should be growing more leaves, not falling. It made me think how the art around me tries to portray some deep message. I made my way towards one of the sculptures. It looks like an intense battle scene. I can't explain it, but at every angle you look at the sculpture, you feel empowered.

As I was looking at the art, I caught a glimpse of the few people that are in the room. Most of them were staring at me, probably because I'm a teenager walking around in a cheap suit in an art gallery that sells pieces worth more than a hundred pounds of gold. One of the people is a security guard; he kept watching my every move. I walked back over to one sculptures on the far side of the room, I was facing the direction of everyone in the room. I made it look like I'm staring at the large sculpture, but I kept giving quick, short glances at them. I think I saw one of them talk into their wrists, but I am unsure. I turned myself around, and made my way back towards the paintings hanging off the wall. I made sure my back is turned from the other people in the room.

"Find anything?" I said into my ear piece.

"Nothing yet, there's no sight of Rison," said Amber. I pulled out my cell phone to check the time.

"Same here, but there's a passageway that leads into a few more hallways, but it's blocked off with security guards. I'm pretty sure Rison is in there. Should we move in?" questioned Domino.

"No, there's no need to draw unwanted attention, I want to try to be discreet. Let's meet up back in the main room. The art reveal is in about five minutes," I said. It's not a smart idea to move in and risk the mission, when odds are that Rison is going to out during the art reveal.

I made my way back into the center room, passing the few people that are in the room. I was intrigued on why they didn't go back into the main room; they were dressed like they would shell out big money for James Rison's art. I pushed and shoved my way passed the large crowd that has gathered into the room. I made my way towards Amber and Domino who are in front of the assembly of people. We were right in front of the large canvas which is covered up by a cloth. A few minutes later I saw Rison come from the right room. He must've been in the back where Domino said he was. He looked like he's in a hurry. He shuffled his way to the front of the room.

"I want to thank all of you for coming out to Castaway Gallery for our latest showing. One of our new, upcoming artists is going to reveal his latest piece. Now without further ado, I give you James Rison," said the gallery's curator. All our eyes were turned towards Rison, I wanted to confront him, but we needed to be somewhere private.

"Hello everyone, it's great to see so many of come out for my latest showing. It's one of the hardest works I have ever done, so I hope you enjoy it. Now if you will all please divert your attention towards the canvas," said Rison. He walked over to the painting which is covered by the large, blue cloth.

"With this I show you 'A Battle-Scarred Warrior,'" he said as he pulled the cloth off the canvas revealing the astonishing painting beneath. There was a good amount of applause from the crowd, but Amber, Domino, and I were awe struck. "Wow," I said to myself. The impenetrable beauty from the painting stunned us all. The piece of art is a battle scene where Bash takes up most of the foreground. Everywhere near him are fires set ablaze, and other warriors fighting with swords. On Bash you can see scars dawned onto his body, signifying that he has just been through a long, horrific war. His red eyes pierce into your body. The mace at the end of his tail hangs heavy in the blood of his foes. I looked around and saw people are just as astonished as I am. "My inspiration for this piece was a small meteorite that I had recently found while I was at a family reunion in Ohio," said Rison. In the bottom right-hand corner I saw his signature in deep heavy black paint.

"Amazing," whispered Amber.

"I know," responded Domino. I looked around and saw that the audience is in the amazement I'm in.

James quickly left the stage and hurried back in the same direction. I signaled Domino and Amber to leave the main room and we followed Rison back into the right room. When we reached the room, we found no sign of him. Domino tapped on my shoulder and pointed to the passageway that he had mentioned earlier. At the moment, it was left the unguarded. They must be doing a shift change. It's blocked by a velvet rope, similar to the ones blocking off the sculptures. There's also a sign that says "No Entry Allowed." I gestured for all of us to move in. We snuck under the rope and went down the passageway. It split into two different directions: left and right. "Go left," I commanded in a whispered voice. We continued down the hallway. Some of the rooms were locked and only could be opened by a keycard because they held some art within the room.

We reached the corner of this corridor, and we began to hear voices. "We're giving you more than a fair deal," said the sounds of a man. All of us immediately went towards the room where the voices were coming from. We're at the door, and I peered into the window. I saw Rison and three other people standing around a table with a briefcase filled with money and the statuette of Bash. The impulsive side of me wanted bust in there right now, and grab him and run. But the rational and smart side of my mind told me to wait. "And I told you this isn't nearly what close to what I was asking!" shouted Rison. We looked around the room and I saw that two of them have silenced handguns holstered on their side, and the other has a silenced MP7 submachine gun in his hands. All of us immediately pulled out our guns which were concealed by our jackets. "Do I have to remind you that you were the one that came to us wanting to sell?" sternly said the man holding the MP7. I noticed that there is another entrance to the room around the corner. I signaled Amber to go to it so she can get another vantage point.

"No you came to me with this offer to buy. We originally agreed the deal was $100,000 and now you went all the way down to $50,000!" complained Rison.

"Listen, it's not easy trying to move this kind of thing around. You have to pay people to keep quiet, and it takes a special kind of buyer for these meteorites," said one of them.

"I know for a fact that you Dultras pay much more than $50,000 for pieces like this," angrily said Rison. The Dultras, why are they here? If Rison is telling the truth, then the Dultras came to him with the offer to buy the Skylander. Why aren't they just stealing the priceless art around us? Why do they want the Skylander? When they attacked Santa Fe, I was able to believe that it was coincidence when I found Drobot with one of them, and the rest of them poorly leaving the cash behind, but now I think they definitely have to be involved. I silently cocked my gun.

The two parties began to debate and negotiate their price. One of the Dultras glanced towards the door Amber was spying from. She quickly ducked her head to the side of the window, but she was too late. "It's a setup!" he shouted. Another Dultra quickly pulled out his silenced pistol and pointed it at Rison's head. "Traitor" he yelled. He pulled the trigger on his gun, and the bullet exited the barrel and pierced into Rison's head. He fell onto the ground as his body went limp and lifeless. The Dultra with the MP7 raised his gun towards the door Amber is at.

"AMBER WATCH OUT!" I screamed.

The Dultra fired his machine gun at the door, bullet holes appearing all over it. Domino and I barged into the room. I fired two shots at them; I only grazed one of them, tearing a part of suit. They all turned around and began to point their guns at us. With no cover around us, I pushed Domino and myself towards the ground. I heard the sound a thump as our bodies hit the floor. Domino was able to aim at the Dultra and took a shot at him. The bullet entered through his chin and exited out the back of his head. The other two Dultras ignored us and grabbed Bash, and dashed out of the room into the hallway. We got up and began to pursue them. As soon as we exited the door I saw Amber on the ground. I quickly ran to her.

"Amber!" I saw her body move as she attempted to get up. I lent my hand out to help her get up.

"I'm fine Jack, I dived out of the way when the bullets started flying," she said as she's rubbing the back of her head.

"Thank God," I said in relief.

"Hurry up, the Dultras are escaping!" stated Domino.

We began to chase after the Dultras. We came to a corner, and stopped because we came back in sight with the two of them. "This is Echo team; we got the package, but we got jumped. Requesting assistance," said one of them into his radio. They turned around and saw us coming. We have to get them before their backup arrives. We're the only ones stopping them from accomplishing their goal. Amber and I were on the left side of the wall while Domino is on the right. The two Dultras busted into rooms both directly across from the each. "FBI, DROP YOUR WEAPONS OR WE WILL RETURN FIRE!" I shouted. The Dultra hiding in the left room began to send rounds over to me, he missed. I took a shot at him, he dodged and returned fire. I threw my body back behind the wall. "What was the point of bringing you those guns if all we're gonna do is find ourselves in gunfights with just pistols?" asked Amber. She leaned over my body and fired at the Dultra hiding in the right room.

"This is a waste of time. They're just waiting until their backup arrives," I said as we exchanged gunfire. Domino leaned his head over to the hallway. I followed suit and we both fired at the two who were hiding behind the doors of the rooms. I broke the glass of the window on the door and bullet shattered into the Dultra's skull. Unfortunately he wasn't the one carrying Bash. "Two down, one to go!" shouted Domino. If I could only get a shot on him, but he isn't coming out of cover. We can't advance on him because there's no cover and it's a narrow passageway, it would be suicide.

At last the Dultra finally came out of his cover and began to run in the opposite direction while suppressing us with his silenced gun. "Jack five guys right behind me!" I heard Amber shout. I looked behind her and saw five Dultras armed with heavy assault rifles coming down the hallway. "Run!" I commanded. We began to dash down the hallway where I had killed a Dultra. By the now the Dultra was gone. We pasted the dead body of the Dultra I had just shot, his blood still dripping out of his skull, and the five of them came within sight. Three of us began to suppress them, and our clips ran out of ammo as we turned right into another hallway.

We each slid a new magazine into our weapons, it made me worry about how little ammunition we're carrying. None of us could've imagined walking into a gunfight today. I can't believe I didn't notice the lack of security and the conveniently broken cameras. Somebody in the staff must've been paid off, maybe even the curator, but this doesn't matter if we don't stop them before they escape. We came back in sight of the man holding Bash. We kept following him, occasionally attempting to put a bullet in him, as the entrance to the back rooms came into view. I was in the lead with Domino and Amber right behind me. The Dultra leaped over the velvet ropes that blocked the entrance. We were about 25 feet behind him and I began to jump over it. As I was in the air, my face was suddenly met with the butt of someone's gun. I fell onto the ground with one hand covering face trying to stop blood from pouring out of the new set of lacerations on my face. The Dultra began to turn his shotgun towards my body; I then heard the sounds of Amber's gun. The Dultra's body fell onto the ground.

"You okay?" asked Amber as she helped me up.

"Yeah," I answered. I wiped the blood off my face with my sleeve, noticing the only injuries I sustained are a few small scratches, my luck still held out. I walked over to the dead Dultra and picked up his SPAS-12 shotgun. I checked the gun's ammunition and it's loaded with eight shots. With the little firepower we have, we're going to be forced to use enemy weapons.

As we were about to exit the right room, four more Dultras came in. We dove for the huge stone sculptures because it's the best cover in the room. I'm on the left side of the sculpture while Amber's on the right side. Domino hid behind the next sculpture to my left. The Dultras hid behind the large archway that leads into the room. I looked the sights of the shotgun and fired at the wall, hoping the shot would be large enough to penetrate through it thus killing some of them. I didn't hear any sound of terror coming from them. One of them looked into the room and fired his machine gun at Amber. She ducked as chips of the sculptures began to break off due to the bullets. Domino took his chance and fired three rounds at the Dultra. Two of the bullets lodged themselves into his shoulder; he's injured, but not dead. He cowered back to cover with the help of one of his friends.

From behind, I heard footsteps coming. "Damn it, those guys are back!" I shouted. Now we have to battle from both sides. I fired two shots of the shotgun to try and hold them off. They're now where the passageway splits into two. "Jack, Domino I'll suppress the guys behind us, if you two can take out the guys in front," said Amber. Both of us nodded in agreement. I made a daring dash towards Domino's cover. I saw Amber sending a constant stream of fire behind her. "Amber how many mags are you carrying?" I shouted over the gunfire.

"I have about three clips left, I'm gonna run out soon if we don't hurry up," she answered. She and I are carrying the same type of handgun. I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out two of my own magazines. "Here, take them. Don't worry about me I have enough ammo," I said as I tossed them over to her. She gladly accepted, and I turned my head to Domino. "I don't suppose you have plan Jack," said Domino.

"I might, but it's pretty risky."

"Anything is better than sitting here," said Domino as a bullet lodged itself into a part of the sculpture that was in the path of his head.

I glanced over our cover and saw that they're firing in a pair: one on the left side of the archway, and the other on the right. "If we can simultaneously kill the two firing on us, we might get a chance to advance. Once we hit the archway we attack the other in close combat," I thought.

"You know we're gonna be gambling our lives on this plan?" nervously said Domino.

"We're already betting our lives on making it out of here alive," I said.

"Alright Jack, you're the leader," he said in agreement.

"We're going to have to fire together, one shot each. I'll take the right, you take the left. On three we shoot. 1…2…3…FIRE!" I shouted. We both got up from cover and I took a shot with the shotgun, seeing the large shotgun shell smoking as it's launched from the gun, the recoil bursting onto my shoulder. The bullet from Domino's gun soared through the air and it embedded itself in the wall, inches away from the Dultra's body. The pattern beads from the slug seemed to entire miss the Dultra I aimed at, both of us have missed our mark. We ducked back into cover as the Dultras began to return fire. "That didn't work out," jokingly said Domino. I glared back at him with frustration. I checked the ammunition in the shotgun, I had four shots left. "Same plan, on three. 1…2…3…FIRE!" I yelled. We followed the exact same pattern we had done earlier, but this time with success. The pelts from the shotgun shell blew into the chest of the Dultra and he died instantly. Domino finally finished off the Dultra he had earlier put a couple of bullets in. We made a mad dash towards the archway, the seemingly short distance felt like I'm running a marathon. I kept hearing the sounds of the suppressing gunshots coming from Amber's gun.

We reach the archway and we pressed our bodies against the wall, knowing fully well that there's still two Dultras on the other side. Domino nodded his head signaling he's ready to attack. I nodded my head in agreement, and we both began to charge the two Dultras. Domino looked around the corner and saw the man. The Dultra's eyes lit up with shock when he saw Domino. Domino lifted his gun and bashed the Dultra in the face. He fell to the ground, and Domino took one last shot on the Dultra. I attacked my target at the same time as Domino. I bashed the stock of the shotgun into the face of the Dultra. He attempted to raise his assault rifle towards my body, but he was too late as a shotgun round exploded into chest. The Dultras don't deserve any mercy.

"Amber we're clear!" I called out to her. She got up and ran over to us firing the last of her bullets. As she reached us, she grabbed the AK-47 off the Dultra that Domino had killed. She replaced the current magazine in the gun with a fresh one off the Dultra's chest. Unfortunately she doesn't have the capacity to carry more. Domino followed in the same pattern, and holstered his handgun and picked up a Vector submachine gun off the ground. I peered over the archway, noticing the once magnificent sculptures now severely fragmented and beyond repair. I poked my head even more out the archway, and saw the five Dultras that had chased us now coming into view. One of them noticed me and attempted to put a few bullets into my body. I immediately pulled my body behind the archway.

"Fall back to the entrance, the Dultra with Bash probably left by now. Switch your guns to semi-auto, and conserve your ammo. We still have a lot of fighting to do," I directed. We began to shuffle back, keeping our eyes and weapons focused on archway to the right room. As we made our way towards the entrance we saw an off duty police officer and a few more people lying dead on the ground. I sighed with sadness, because of me they've died, but now isn't the time to mourn the lost.

I saw two people of the group rushing us exit from the right room. I fired a shotgun round at them in attempt to hold them back. "We're gonna need a car if we're gonna find him," I said. A few of the Dultras made a risky attempt by running out into the open and hiding behind a few of the pillars in the room. Amber sent a few rounds over to him, one striking his chest. "Can't we just take your car?" shouted Amber over the gunfire. He grunted as hit the ground, but miraculously he got up. "My car is a quarter mile from here. It's not a smart idea; we'll be too exposed for a long period of time. I saw body armor protruding from his clothes. Domino and Amber kept sending bullets at them with the hope that they stay back.

We eventually made it to the door. We're now outside, crouching behind the brick wall. Right above our heads is a shattered window. To my right are the double doors that go into the art gallery. To the right of the doors is Domino. We kept looking into it, and firing it at the Dultras. "Jack if you can hold off the Dultras, I'll go find us transport," offered Amber.

"Sounds like a plan, be back soon. Here take another clip for your Glock; I don't want you out there with just an AK. I don't know how long we can hold off," I said as I tossed the magazine to her.

Amber caught it and dashed off down the street. Domino and I looked over the cover and saw the Dultras. All of them are now deep in cover. A couple of them are hiding behind pillars, two of them are using a desk that's near the entrance, and the last one is hiding in the archway to the left room. Domino fired three bullets from his Vector at the people hiding behind the receptionist desk. Domino's gunfire had blasted through a computer, the parts of it flying through the air. I peered over the cover and saw the Dultra hiding in the archway. I looked down the sights of my shotgun and pulled the trigger. The round blasted into the Dultras head and neck, effectively killing him. Four left to go. Domino is now in a gunbattle with the two behind the desk, and I am trying to figure out how to take out the two using the pillars as cover.

In my ear piece, I heard the sound of glass being broken. "Jack I found a car that I can hotwire, you're going to have to give me a few minutes," said Amber.

"Believe me Amber, we're not going anywhere," I said sarcastically. I peered over the wall and saw a Dultra hiding behind a pillar. He too saw me and sent a barrage of gunfire at me. I dodged the gunfire and got back into cover. I cocked my shotgun and raised my head back up. I retaliated and fired the shotgun at him. Unlike him, I was successful. He dropped to the ground like a bookcase falling to the ground.

I dropped the shotgun, and pulled out my pistol. I loaded a new clip into it. I looked over to Domino; he kept ducking his head from the bullets that the Dultras are sending him. He's unable to get a shot. I decide to help the rook, and took a few shots at the Dultras behind the desk. They turned their attention away from Domino and started firing at me. I could hear the bullets whizzing pass my head, and the way some of the gunfire had hit the wall made it feel like I'm receiving the impact. "DOMINO, NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!" I yelled over the gunfire. He looked into the gallery and fired at one of the Dultras. The bullet went cleanly through his head.

"Thanks Jack," said Domino.

"No problem," I said. I kept forgetting that all of us are a team; we all have to work together. If it hadn't been for Domino and Amber today, I would be dead, but there's still more bloodshed to follow.

"Do you think we're gonna make it out alive?" inquired Domino. I looked over the cover and saw the Dultra hiding behind the pillar. He took a few shots at me; I was able to quickly dodge the gunfire. "I don't know, this definitely isn't the worst I have ever been," I answered. I returned fire and the gunshots blasted into the pillar he's hiding behind. "This isn't the worst?!" Domino said in shock. He got up from cover and took four shots at the Dultra using the desk as cover. "I still think when I was in Santa Fe, that's a bit worse than this," I admitted. I peered over from cover again and saw that the Dultra is now blind firing at me. I took this advantage, and aimed at his hand. I pulled the trigger and the bullet pierced through his palm. The Dultra dropped his weapon and roared in pain. I took a few more shots at him, with the gunfire driving into his neck.

Behind me I heard the sounds of car on the seemingly deserted road. I turned my head and saw a gray sedan speeding to us. The car came to a screeching halt in front of Castaway Gallery. "DOMINO, JACK GET IN!" shouted Amber as she shot her handgun out the window of the car at the last living Dultra who's attempted to escape the gallery. The bullets from her gun penetrated into the Dultra's body and he fell to the ground.

Domino dashed into the backseat, as I slid across the hood of the car. I got in the car and slammed the door shut. Amber pressed down hard on the pedal. "I saw a group of Dultras in a black SUV about 3 blocks down. If we can hurry we can meet them at the freeway," said Amber as she turned left. We sped down the road; Amber ran a red light, barely missing the oncoming cars. I pulled the empty magazine in my gun, and loaded in the last one I had. "I'm down to my last mag," I said. Whatever is going to happen, the only thing I know for sure is that it's gonna end soon.

"GET OUT THE WAY!" screamed Amber as she honked at a slow moving car that we're behind. She veered over the double yellow lines and sped up the car. I heard the sounds of the horn from the car that she passed. She pressed harder on the pedal. I noticed the needle on the speedometer is at the 90 mark. We're all determined to make sure that the Dultras won't get away.

After a few minutes of very intense and near death driving, we finally came to the freeway. "Where are they?" I asked scanning the area trying to find the black SUV. Amber slowed down to the speed limit and all of us began looking for them. If the Dultras wanted to get out of the city fast, this would be the route they would have to take. We came too far, and too many lost their lives today to let them get way.

"LOOK OVER THERE!" shouted Domino. He pointed to the black car attempting to blend in with the rest of the traffic. Amber sped up the car and quickly turned across four lanes of traffic, again ignoring the blaring honks coming from the other vehicles on the road. We're now right behind them, I looked into the car and could confirm that's the Dultras by the large amount of heavy artillery they have. There are four people in the SUV. I saw the one we're chasing after sitting the back near the right window. I pulled my upper body out of the window; I aimed my gun at the SUV. I took about five shots at them. There are only two ways that I can stop of the car: shooting the tires or shooting the driver. The bullets had hit the back windshield, but they didn't penetrate into the car. Instead they bounced off, leaving white cracks in its tracks. "Damn it!" I shouted as I put my body back into the car. The Dultras began to pick up their speed, we followed suit and increased our speed to 100 MPH. Three of Dultras pulled their machine guns out of their car.

"GET DOWN!" I commanded.

We all ducked our heads under the window as the bullets from the Dultra's guns shattered the front windshield. I saw glass rain down on Amber and Domino. After a few seconds Amber turned the steering wheel right to get out of the Dultra's line of fire. We all raised our heads back up. Amber swerved out of the way of an oncoming car. "Amber, get on the left side," I directed. She nodded and picked up speed, putting the grey sedan to its limits. I felt wind blowing hard in my face due to the windshield being destroyed. She got alongside SUV, Domino and I pulled our guns out of the window. "Aim for the tires, their car is bullet resistant. It's the only way we'll have a chance," I said.

I took two shots at the tire. I saw sparks light up as the bullets hit the wheel well. The Dultra in the back aimed his weapon at me. Domino shot at the Dultra, more white cracks appeared upon the car. "Amber you're going to have to get us closer, I don't have a shot," I said.

"I can't, we'll get slaughtered if we do that."

"One bullet is all that it'll take."

Amber sighed and reluctantly agreed. She turned the steering wheel to the right and we crawled our way to the black SUV. "Keep suppressing them Domino," I called.

"I'm out of ammo in my Vector."

"Take the AK-47 and use up the clip," Amber suggested. The gun is next to Domino in the back. He picked it up and started to burst fire at the Dultras. I aimed back at the tire. I took four more shots, nearing the end of my magazine. To my luck, one of the bullets pierced into the tire. It blew out, and the Dultras began to spin out of control. They started veering left and right, a few seconds later they hit on concrete barrier on the far right. Their car was launched into the air and the glass from the windows shattered as they hit the ground. They rolled a few times, each time the car taking damage. Their car finally stopped, it's upside down and I saw no one move from the car.

Amber screeched the sedan to a halt and I dashed out the car. I leapt over the concrete barrier and ran to the car. I had my Glock in my hands and I circled around the car looking for any signs of life. I found none and I walked over to the lower right door on the car. I unlocked it and opened it up. I dragged the horribly damaged body of the Dultra that we were chasing. Blood had poured out every part of his body. Cuts and lacerations had dressed his skin. I began to search all over his body. "Bash, can you hear me?" I asked.

"Ugh… I'm in here," I heard a voice say within the Dultra.

I opened up his coat and found the blood soaked statuette. I sighed with relief. At the moment, I'm glad of my strange ability to talk to these meteorites. "How do you know who I am?" the figurine asked.

"Long story. I promise, I'll answer all you questions later." I answered.

I glanced behind my shoulder and saw Domino and Amber walking to me. "What should we do Jack?" Domino asked.

"Call the police, tell them what happened and ask them to meet us here. Hopefully our FBI status will answer most of their questions," I said. Domino nodded and walked away from the wreckage. Amber came closer to me. "So this is what we nearly killed ourselves for?" she asked as she looked at Bash who's in my hand.

"Believe me, he's more powerful than he looks," I said.

"So do you think we can call today a success?"

"I'd call it the farthest thing from it. We might've gotten the meteorite, but in the process we destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of art, wrecked Castaway Gallery, killed probably at least 15 people, and to top it off at least another 5 civilians are dead. And you want to the best thing?"

"What?"

"We still have to rob the museum."

**Thanks for reading; I hoped you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for no Spyro and Drobot in this chapter. If you liked the chapter, please give it a review.**


	13. Preparations

**Hey everyone, I want to thank you all for getting me over 50 reviews. It's something I never thought would happen when I started writing. I also hit 50,000 words, which is an amazing achievement in my mind. I want to thank you all for helping me to reach these goals, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

Marcus King's POV

I'm in a deep undercover operation. I haven't seen my family in over two years. I'm on loan from the US Marshalls to the CIA. I've seen things and done things that I'm not proud of, but all of it is going to payoff someday, hopefully. Legally, the CIA isn't allowed to spy on American citizens, but these guys have connections to many known terrorist organizations. They're also one of the biggest threats to National Security.

I'm walking down the long narrow hallway with my "friend" Royce Gorelli. Both of us have seen some action recently. We both shed some blood, but we made it out barely alive. Our transport was delayed. Everyone is still trying to figure how two of our helicopters were destroyed. From what I learned from the police reports, they believe they had been destroyed by rockets. But the only people who would've had RPGs in the vicinity would've been us or the National Guard. Obviously our own wouldn't fire on each other. But by the time the National Guard was able to leave their base, the choppers were already been destroyed. As we walked down the hallway, another Dultra ran into us.

"Watch it!" shouted Gorelli.

"Sorry," he said in panic, "I'm looking for Octavio; do you know where he is?"

"He's in his office; same as usual," I answered.

"Thanks Raven," he said. When I first went undercover they changed my name to Raven Hexner, the CIA wanted to make sure that I didn't have any connection to my old life. The only contact I have with the CIA is an unscheduled meeting at an undisclosed location every few months.

"Don't mention it Nikko."

Octavio is the head of all of the Dultras in the Western United States. He commands all the operations we do. So far, all what we have done has been a success. The robbery in Santa Fe was able yield $45,000,000 in stolen goods. Not the largest the Dultras have ever done, but certainly to make an impact. Part of the operation I'm in is to figure out a way to bring him down, although it's nearly impossible to implicate him in any crime. The Dultras payoff judges, investigators, jury pools, and many others. If you don't comply, don't expect to wind up missing or dead.

Nikko dashed to the end of the hall and opened up the door to Octavio's office. "Do you think we should listen in on them?" suggested Royce. I nodded in agreement and we both slowly crept in on them. We're standing right outside the door, hugging the wall next to it.

"Nikko what do you have for me?" asked Octavio.

"We just got a report from the team that you sent to Albuquerque. It seems they have failed the objective. Most of the team died in a gunfight," answered Nikko. I heard the sound of someone throwing a glass against a wall.

"When did this happen?"

"A few hours ago."

"Who did it?"

"Preliminary reports are saying that it was three teenagers. One of them is the same person who killed the team that was sent to Henderson Bank and Trust in Santa Fe, but sir the idea of a teenager being behind this is…well preposterous," admitted Nikko.

"No it isn't, I know who you're talking about. The kid's name is Jack Ashburn. I received word from one of our moles in the FBI that he and another agent, Dylan Garter, are the new agents put on the case of bringing us down. I had hoped that they would both back down from the case, but it seems like my previous intentions aren't going to be realized. Not to worry, let's put an assassination order on him and Garter. Go down to the black market and put a bounty on both of their heads for $50,000."

Ashburn, I know that name. Right before I went undercover I worked with him on a few missions. I've seen his file; I'm surprised to know that he's alive. Some of the stuff he's done should've got him killed years ago, but somehow he lived to tell the tale. "Wow, never thought I would see the boss put a hit out on a kid," whispered Royce. I have no way of contacting Ashburn, and I can't risk jeopardizing the operation. I can only hope those two can stay alive and realize the threat against them.

"Gorelli, Hexner get in here!" shouted Octavio. I gulped with nervousness when he shouted our names. I'm worried that my cover has been blown, but there's nothing I can do. Royce and I entered into the office.

"Yes sir," I said.

"Can I ask why you two were eavesdropping on our conversation?" he asked sternly.

"Well sir, Royce and I were just curious why you were talking to Nikko. He ran into us and acted pretty suspicious, we just wanted to make sure that he wasn't up to anything," I answered. I glanced over at Royce; he stood there in silence, acting calmly.

"Okay then, it's good to know that my men care about my safety, but rest assured I can handle myself on my own. Now Gorelli and Nikko, I ask that you leave, Mr. Hexner and I need to conduct some business," said Octavio. Royce and Nikko nodded their heads and exited the room. Octavio gestured me to sit down. I pulled out the chair and sat myself down. He slid a folder across his desk to me. I opened up the folder and saw a picture of one of the meteorites that fell to Earth recently. It looked like a violet dragoness with silver horns lunching out to attack. "Hexner, find it. I expect results by the end of the week, you can use all the resources you deem necessary. Understood?" asked Octavio. I looked over the files; it had little information to follow. "Yes sir, but can I ask why I'm looking for this?" I inquired.

"Mr. Hexner you let me deal with those small details," he said. I became worried with what he meant by this. Whatever the Dultras are into, it can never be good.

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Jack's POV

It's well into the afternoon; all of us are tired from today's events. We're all in my car, driving back to the house in Tucumcari. Bash is still in his toy form. For the moment, I didn't want to try to release him, even though I don't even know how to release him. The police gave us a hard time for bringing havoc to Albuquerque. Like most times, I ignore most of their rants. Some of them wanted to arrest us, while a few gave us the respect to defend us. In the end they let us go, there was nothing they could do to us anyway; what's done has been done and we helped stop the Dultras. Although it was partially our fault. Some of them wanted us to see the bodies of the innocent. As if their death was entirely my fault, it wouldn't have mattered; they're bodies going to be forever etched into my mind.

We just past the sign that told we entered the city. I saw Domino in the back leaning his head on the window sleeping. I looked over to my right and saw Amber looking down on her cell phone. "Who are you?" asked the statuette of Bash who's in my cup holder. Bash really didn't talk the whole trip to the house, it can be hard asking questions to someone you don't know. "My name's Jack Ashburn. The person next to me is Amber Miller. The guy in the back is Domino Knott," I answered. Amber looked up from her phone with a quizzical look on her face; Spyro had the same look on his face when I talked to Drobot when he was still a toy.

"How do you know who I am?"

"It's a long story; basically I met Spyro. We should meet up with him pretty soon. Drobot is also there."

"How did you meet him?"

"About a week ago Spyro crashed through a warehouse I was investigating. Somehow, I was able to free him from his frozen state, and shortly after that he saved my life. Don't ask me how I freed him because I don't know. Nobody else, to the best of my knowledge, has been able to free any of the other Skylanders."

I glanced back over to Amber; she still had a puzzled look. I wish that she didn't have to be involved in this. If I died back at Castaway Gallery because her not being there, then so be it. I never should've asked for her help, but I needed it. "Who are you talking to?" she questioned.

"The meteorite," I said.

"Kind of strange," she said.

"That strikes you as strange, not the two walking aliens that we're hiding back at the house or the fact that we're risking prison by attempting to steal a portal."

"You never had told how we're gonna take the portal. From the pictures I've seen of the museum and the portal, this isn't going to be an easy heist. It doesn't help that they just added a new security system. Maybe if Dakota was here we would be able to hack into it and disable it, but from the sound of it, you only want us three to do this."

"I never said it's going to you, me, and Domino. We still have the help from Spyro and Drobot, and why do you think we nearly killed ourselves to get Bash? Without him our whole plan will fail."

"So what exactly is our plan?"

"I don't really have one. There are still some details I want to discuss. We'll get everyone's opinions when we get back to the house," I said. Stealing the portal is going to be a risk. But like most risks, there's going to be a reward.

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Spyro's POV

I'm in the backyard, my body stretched out on the ground, soaking up the warmth of the summer's day. I have been trying to forget yesterday's events. No matter what Jack might think, I know I did the right thing. But I was worried that the cost might've been too high. I did go behind his back, and I did betray him, the two things that he would kill over. I remember a few nights about how irate Jack had gotten over his friend, Dylan, for going behind his back. Jack barely wants to help Skylands because of what I had done. He never had to owe me for me saving his life, but it was the only reason he had helped me. Now I'm pretty sure I lost his trust.

I heard a car approaching the driveway. I got up and went back inside and waited near the front door. The door opened up and I saw Jack, Amber, and Domino drag themselves inside. All of them clearly looked exhausted. The suits that they're wearing are torn and tattered. I noticed Bash in Amber's hand; it's good to know that their mission was successful. I looked up and saw scratches dawned upon Jack's face. "What happened to you?" I asked. Jack shoved his way passed me. "Not now Spyro," he grunted. I looked over to the other two for answers; both of them are still suspicious of me. "Long day," answered Amber.

Jack made his way into the living room and dropped onto the couch. He laid his head down on the armrest and closed his eyes. All of us followed him into the room. "Where's Drobot?" asked Domino.

"In his room like usual."

Domino nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. Amber sat down in the other chair which left me to sit down on the ground in front of the coffee table. "What happened to you guys? I see you got Bash, but it looks you guys have been sent through a meat grinder," I said. Jack opened his eyes and readjusted his position. "It surely felt like it. When we found Bash, the Dultras were there making a deal with Rison. We were spying on them and one of the Dultras saw Amber. They murdered Rison and started to fire at us. After a bloody chase, we got Bash," said Jack. I'm surprised to hear about the Dultras being there. It seems like they're everywhere a Skylander is. He threw one of the throw pillows on his head and closed his eyes, clearly exhausted from today. All of the sudden, Jack let out a loud sigh. "Ugh… fine Bash," yelled Jack. He threw off the throw pillow and got up off the couch.

"What was that about?" asked Domino.

"Bash just said he wanted us to free him. Said he doesn't want to wait any longer," stated Jack. I forget about Jack's weird ability to talk to talk to the frozen Skylanders. I also remember how immensely frustrated Jack had gotten when he tried to free Drobot. He picked up the statuette of Bash.

Jack began to hold Bash in the same position he had when he held Drobot and I, thinking that it was the reason he had freed us. Jack searched around the figurine for a few minutes, his frustration level increasing as each moment passed. "Do you want me to try it?" asked Domino. Jack tossed Bash over to him. "You give it a shot," said Jack. Domino began to look at every spot on the meteorite; he repeated every step that Jack had followed. His luck was the same as Jack's. "Do you want to try?" Domino asked to Amber. She nodded and he passed the Skylander over to her. For the next five minutes she thought of every way to bring Bash back to life, but, like everyone else, she's unsuccessful. Eventually Amber passed Bash over to me, with the hope that maybe I'll be able to break him out of his frozen prison. But that hope didn't last. I handed the figurine back over to Jack. He made a fist and he punched the wall behind the couch. He looked over the meteorite again, spending even more time trying to figure out how to release. Then, unexpectedly, Bash began glow and grow. "Whoa," all of us shouted. Jack quickly set Bash on the ground and a few seconds later he stopped glowing and returned to the original form he was in before he landed on Earth.

"Ugh…" groaned Bash.

"Are you okay?" I asked as he cracked his spine. He stretched out his muscles; I heard the cracking of his bones as he relieved the stress from his body for being in the same position for so long.

"Yeah, I think. Where are the rest of the Skylanders?"

"I don't know Bash, I'm sorry. They're somewhere in this large country, but our priority now isn't on finding them. We're working on way home. We found a portal, but it doesn't work. We need your help in taking it," I said.

"Jack said something about that on the way here, but are you sure we can take on Kaos by ourselves?" he said.

"All we can do is hope," I said.

Bash had a disappointed look on his face. He went over to and jumped onto to the couch with Jack. "May I sit here?" he asked to Jack. He nodded his head in approval. "Now that everything's settled, we need to get down to business," said Jack.

"About what?" I asked.

"Stealing the portal from the museum in Santa Fe. Besides the talk we a few nights ago, we never really had really formulated a plan. Go upstairs and get Drobot," said Jack.

"Okay," I said as I got up. I went upstairs and found Drobot still in his room. I told him that Jack, Domino, and Amber are back with Bash and we have to work out the plan. He's thrilled to hear about Bash being back and he quickly came downstairs with me. We came back into the living room. "It's good to see you again friend," said Drobot the second his eyes laid on Bash's.

"You too, Drobot," said Bash. I went back to where I sat on the ground earlier and Drobot sat next to me. "What we talked about before is the 3 things that have to be settled first before we began the heist: the heavy lifting, transportation, and destination. Bash you know that we're not trying to go after the Skylanders, the reason we got you is because Drobot and Spyro said that you're on of the strongest Skylanders and you should be able to lift the portal. Now I have to ask you a question; are they telling the truth?" said Jack. Bash made a grin on face. "Yes I can, I lifted a few portals back on Skylands. Oh and thanks for the compliment guys," he smiled. I returned his grin with my own. "You're welcome Bash," I said.

"What about your end of the bargain?" scowled Drobot. While Jack and the rest of them were gone, I had to sit through one of Drobot's rants about he barely trusts Jack. He wasn't happy about not going with them, he would've rather been there trying to help save Bash and he didn't care about the risks that came with going with them.

"I have found a place to where we can take the portal, but it's a long drive, but if we can get there we'll have the advantage of no one being able to bother us."

"And where is that?"

"I know a place. I learned about it a long time ago, but I never had any use for it since I lived so far away, but because we're on the western side of the country. We might be able to use it, I haven't even thought about it until we started talking about the plan a few nights ago. There's an abandon military airstrip in California, no one's been there in over 20 years and by now it has been buried within deep brush. It would be easy to defend, and we wouldn't have to worry about people coming in. It's also very far away from Santa Fe; we wouldn't have to worry about police interference."

"Where is it?" asked Amber.

"It's about 75 miles north of Los Angeles," said Jack

"California. That's gonna be a long drive, we won't be able to stop at a gas station for at least 900 miles. And we still have to deal with the transportation issue," said Domino.

"I actually have thought about that, when we get near the museum we try to find a truck with a trailer attached. We'll need something that'll be able haul something as large as a portal."

"That's gonna take a lot of gas, and I'm assuming where gonna be leaving the house once we begin the house since your lease is up soon. Then that would mean we would have to take both of your cars with us," said Domino.

"I agree with Domino, it would be the smartest to begin the heist the day we have to leave here," I said. Everyone around the room seemed to agree with me.

"So I guess it's agreed that we began the robbery the last day of the lease. That'll give us a few more days to plan and rest until we have to leave. For the gas, we'll just have to bring it with us in gas cans and pull over whenever we have to fill up the cars. Now that we have those three things settled, we still have to deal the actual heist. I think it's pretty much agreed that this has to happen at night, but we still have to deal with the security system," said Jack.

"I checked in with that, the security system isn't run on a separate power source. The problem is once we turn off the power to the museum, the power will come back on since the museum has a backup generator. Also I don't know how we could turn off the power running to the museum without alerting the authorities," said Domino.

"I can handle the power system, just show me where the power runs so I can fry it and I'll do the rest," said Drobot. It's good to see Drobot wanting to take part of this plan even though he has to work with Jack. I'm not sure if I'm ever going to see Drobot get along with Jack.

"What about the security guards?" I asked. I remember seeing them when Jack and I were at the museum. I also remember a few of them being armed.

"We're going to have to use nonlethal methods of taking them out, but be warned, just because we don't want to kill them doesn't mean they won't try and kill us. Amber did you bring any shotguns with you?" said Jack.

"Yeah," said Amber.

"Good, I still have mine that I brought from my apartment. We can load bean bag rounds into them; we'll be able to incapacitate them if we have to. We'll also bring zip ties to bind their hands and to render them immobile."

"I also still have some tasers in the back of my car, they'll be useful as well," said Amber.

"What are Domino and I suppose to do. It sounds like you and Amber are handling the inside of the museum. Bash is going to have to with you, and Drobot is handling the power that runs to the museum," I said.

"I need you two to keep on lookout on the road, if there is any trouble you'll have to warn us so we can abort the mission."

"Sounds like a small role," I said.

"It's not, if you don't warn us, Amber and I could be arrested and Bash will be exposed," said Jack. He still has not gotten over what I did; I wish I could play a bigger role in this. After all this is my world we're trying to save.

"I can't think of anything else we need," said Domino.

"All I wanted was a basic layout of the plan, we'll work out all the problems within the next few days," said Jack.

"So we're done then?" asked Bash.

"Yeah I guess, everyone can disperse and do as they wish," said Jack.

Everyone got up and did as they wished. Drobot went back in his room, tinkering with all objects he could find. Amber and Domino went in the kitchen to make a bite to eat; they had a long day and deserved a rest. Bash and I, for a little while, reminisced in the living room about the events that happened over the past week. He's surprised that I'm still alive, and frankly, I am too. It's weird seeing the occupants in the house we're leasing double. With Amber, Domino, and Bash being here it feels a little cramped, kind of like a small city within the house. I saw Jack sitting outside on the patio furniture alone for a while. All he's doing is just staring at the setting sun. I noticed that Bash walked out into backyard. I decided to eavesdrop, remembering that Jack did exactly the same thing to me around the time we first leased this house.

"Hey Jack," said Bash. Jack looked down and saw the brown wingless dragon.

"Hey Bash, what's going on?" responded Jack.

"Nothing much, I never got the chance to thank you for saving me from the Dultras and releasing me from that frozen form I was in."

"You're welcome, that's definitely more than I got from Drobot."

"Spyro told me about his distrust of you, don't try to take it personally. So I can I ask why you're just sitting out here?"

"I don't know, just thinking I guess."

"About what?"

"Everything I guess."

"That's not really specific," said Bash. He's pressing Jack for answers, just like I did on the way to Santa Fe. I hope Bash knows he's going down on a dangerous road.

"Well pretty much everything that I've been doing for you Skylanders. I'm still pretty mad at Spyro for what he had done. To think I spent my time and nearly killed myself to do what he asked and he just went behind my back, doing something I exactly told him not to do," angrily said Jack.

"What did he do?"

"He betrayed me, that's what he did. It's not something I forgive lightly."

"How did he betray you?"

"Amber and Domino didn't always know about you and the other Skylanders. To us, you're aliens on our planet. If people found out that you even exist, there would be chaos. Yesterday, Amber, Domino, and a couple of my other friends came here to give me a resupply. After the two of my other friends left, Amber, Domino, and I got into an argument. At the time, they didn't know what I was doing. While we were arguing, Spyro came and told them of his existence. I told him exactly not to do that, he nearly got himself and me killed in the process. Now Amber and Domino barely trust me," sighed Jack. Sadness came into my body, I knew what I've done, but it doesn't help hearing it again from Jack.

"So if Spyro hadn't done what he did, Amber and Domino wouldn't have come with you today," said Bash.

"Yeah," said Jack.

"Do you honestly think you could've survived all those guys by yourself?" asked Bash.

"No, probably not, but I've been betrayed by one of my other friends. If I can't trust the people I work with then how can I trust that they won't turn around and stab me in the back."

"I know Spyro, Jack. He would've only done what he had done if he thought it was right. If I were you, I would try to forget about it. What's done is done, and who knows, maybe this is a benefit for you."

"I guess you could be right, but it still doesn't help that he did it so abruptly. Never once did he ask me about telling my friends. It could've gone in a horrible direction."

"Yeah, it _could've,_ but it didn't. There's no reason to hold this grudge over him. Can you at least think about forgiving him?" asked Bash. There are a few moments of silence while Jack pondered his answer.

"Fine, I'll think about it," answered Jack. I'm relieved to hear Jack's decision, although it's not a conclusive answer. If we can't work together, then I don't know how I can save Skylands.

**I hoped you enjoyed the chapter. I hope you don't mind the new character, Marcus King. It's a character that I've wanted to add for a long time. If you like the story please be awesome and give it a review.**


	14. The Wrong Side of the Law

**Hey everybody, sorry about the delay. It has been a nightmare trying to get this chapter out. I had a ton of homework this month and other commitments I made to friends which limited my time writing. On top of all that this chapter was difficult to write. Also right after I finished the chapter my internet got turned off. So I apologize for this delay, and I hope you understand my reasons for it being delayed and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

Jack's POV

We're at some ATV trail right outside the city of Santa Fe. It's the dead of night, and no one is near the unattended parking lot. We left the house a few hours ago, we spent the last few days working out all the flaws in our plan and relaxing our exhausted bodies. Amber took Drobot with her into the city to find a place where he can set up to turn off the power running to the museum.

I remember the conversation I had with Bash a few days ago. He kept trying to convince me that I should forgive Spyro, and in the end I never agreed. How can I trust someone who did what they did? It could've gotten me killed, and he severely damaged the trust I had with my friends. Spyro hasn't earned my trust back; no matter how many times he tries to apologize. Right now, he's no better than Drobot in my mind. At least Bash hasn't tried to push it any farther. I have done as he asked; I did think about forgiving Spyro, but right now I don't see any point in forgiving him.

I turned off my headlights and got out of my car. Out came Domino, Spyro, and Bash. We all began to search for a vehicle suited for the heist. "Over there," pointed Domino. I looked to where Domino's pointing and saw a large blue truck with a trailer attached. "Good eye," I complimented. The five of us crept to the truck, nobody's around and we went up to the trailer. "Domino, Spyro scavenge the back of the truck for any supplies. Bash, help me move these two ATVs off the trailer," I said as unlatched the trailer to lower the back. I set the back of the trailer on the ground and walked up the incline with Bash. I began to push one of the ATVs off the trailer, while Bash pushed the other until they reached the ramp and they gently rolled off the trailer. Bash and I leapt off the side of the trailer and I raised the back of the trailer back up until it locked itself in place. I went over to the back of the truck to find Domino shinning his flashlight into the flatbed while he and Spyro are still searching for something of use.

"Find anything," I asked.

"Yeah, the people who own this truck are certainly on vacation. Take a look," answered Domino.

I looked into the back of the truck and Domino pointed out everything of use. I saw a couple of large tarps we can use to cover the portal, think nylon ropes we can use to tie down the tarps, and a few extras gas cans we can use on drive to California. The rest of the stuff is just random tools and junk. The ATV trails have tent campsites deeper into the forest, and ATVs are not allowed on the trails at night.

"Domino, I want you to swap the license plate with another vehicle around here. Give me a few minutes and I'll hotwire the truck," I said. Domino went into the back of the truck and took out a small screwdriver. He bent down to the license plate and began to unscrew the bolts holding it up. I unsheathed my shotgun off my back and I smashed the driver's side window. It took me a while to hotwire the truck without activating its alarm system. By the time I got the car started, Domino swapped out the license on the truck with another one from a car in the parking lot. "Take my car and follow me to the museum. Spyro will come with you while Bash will ride with me," I said as I handed him the keys to my car from the window. I opened up the passenger side door of the truck and Bash jumped into the vehicle. He slammed the door shut. I began to drive out of the parking lot with Domino following behind me.

"Are you nervous," questioned Bash.

"No, not really," I said, "When you've been doing stuff like this for as long as I have, you know what to do."

"You've robbed a museum before?"

"No, but I have done many illegal things before, the last thing I have in mind is going to prison for what we're about to do."

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Domino's POV

"Do you think this is a good spot," I asked Spyro. We arrived in Santa Fe about 20 minutes after Jack stole the truck. "It's good as any," he replied. I pulled the car into the alleyway and I put it in park and turned it off. I reached into the back and grabbed the black duffel bag from the back filled with my supplies. We got out of the car and I placed the duffel bag on top the car and I unzipped it. I grabbed out my earpiece and a headset that Drobot had made. Drobot made headsets for all the dragons before we had left for Santa Fe. I handed it to Spyro and he strapped it on his head. Drobot was able to connect the headsets to the frequency of our earpieces. "Can you hear me?" I whispered. Spyro nodded his head. I pulled the long length of black rope from the bag and handed one end of it to Spyro. "I need you to fly up there and tie the rope onto something so I can climb up to the top," I said.

"Okay," he responded.

Spyro, with the end of the rope in his teeth, flew up to the top of the building to my left. After a couple of minutes I felt a tug on the rope signaling that he finished. I zipped up the duffel bag and strapped on to my back. I began to scale the side of the wall, pulling up my body weight with each climb. Soon I reached the ledge and I pulled myself over. "Thanks," I said. I walked over to the front corner of the building. Directly in front of the building is the museum, and to my left and right is the street Spyro and I have to cover.

I pulled out my SR-25 sniper rifle out of the bag, one of the few personal weapons I have brought with me to give Jack a resupply. I attached my night vision scope onto the rifle and I screwed on the suppressor. Jack was hesitant to let me bring my sniper with us; he didn't want to use real bullets to attract attention. I was able to convince him to let me bring some ammo to only use on an emergency basis. I pulled out some binoculars from the duffel bag and handed them to Spyro. "Here take this; I want you to scan the right side. Okay?" I asked.

"Alright," he replied. I pulled out the bipod on my sniper and I set it on the edge of the corner. I turned on the night vision scope and I looked down it to confirm the sight. "I'm set up Jack. I'm just waiting for Drobot to turn off the power to this part of the city," I said into my earpiece. The lights from each of the lamp posts on the side of the street are still shining strong. "Bash and I just pulled in behind the museum, we're waiting for Amber to arrive," said Jack.

"I'm on my Jack, I just dropped of Drobot at the spot," said Amber.

"Drobot do you know where to meet us at when you're done?" asked Bash.

"Yeah I know where to fly to. I'm set up, just give me the word and shut off the electricity running to the place," said Drobot.

"Alright everybody, remember once we start, there's no going back," stated Jack. I gulped with nervousness stuck in my throat. I noticed that Spyro's a little on edge as well; after all, tonight could mean securing his way home or losing it forever.

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Jack's POV

Bash and I are standing next to the truck behind the museum. He's getting ready to the lift massive portal a distance from the museum to the trailer. I'm dressed in all black, and slid on some dark shaded sunglasses. I also put on some black leathery gloves. I tied a black bandana around my face, effectively masking my entre face. I remember my experience here at New Mexico's Museum of Aerospace and Science. That had been one of the longest days of life.

A few minutes later Amber showed up in her car, with her lights turned off and parked it next to the truck. She got out of her Charger. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Yeah, but we need to shut of the generator first," I said.

"That's gonna take a little while," said Amber.

"I can handle that," said Bash. Both of us looked toward Bash, who stood looking confident and ready to begin the heist. "Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded and we made our way to the generator, which isn't far from the cars. Amber and I held up our shotguns loaded with beanbag rounds scanning the area. "Alright, Bash, do your thing," I said. Bash backed up from generator and made running start towards it. When he got halfway there, he curled up into a ball. His speed began to increase the closer and he crashed into the generator. The generator exploded into thousands of pieces, and sparks were flying. Amber and I jumped back in surprise. "Good job, at keeping it discreet Bash," I sarcastically said. We needed to keep this job quiet, but it isn't like people are going to notice the missing portal from the museum.

"I guess the generator won't activate," cackled Amber. All of us made our way to the emergency exit Spyro and I used to leave the museum when we traveled here to use the portal. I decided this is the best place to start the heist, none of the security guards would guess we would come through here. "Are all teams ready?" I asked into my earpiece.

"Yeah, we're both set up covering the road. I'm set up to rappel down in case of an emergency," said Domino.

"So far nobody is coming down the road," stated Spyro.

"Drobot, shut off the power" I commanded.

"Alright, just to let you know I'm set up to where I shouldn't alert anyone, but I still wouldn't take too long."

"Believe me Drobot; I have no intentions of overstaying my welcome."

"I'll be flying to the vehicles once I'm done. I'm turning off the power in ten seconds."

The seconds passed as slowly as time could, nervousness and agitation crept into my body. Soon, all the lights from the lampposts and inside the museum had shut off. I began to push my hand onto the door, but it didn't open. "Crap," I whispered. I pushed harder on the door but it didn't want to open. "What's wrong?" asked Bash.

"We can't use the emergency exit, we're going to have to go around to the front of the museum and use the main entrance," I said. We just lost the element of stealth. Assuming that the security guards didn't hear the destruction of the generator, we'll now have to go through the entire museum. We moved up to the corner of the building, we're all ready to advance into the museum.

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Spyro's POV

"Domino, we'll have to use the main entrance. Is it safe to move up to the doors?" asked Jack over the headset. I looked down the night vision binoculars that Domino handed to me, the green light from coming from it took some time to get used to. Everything from my side appeared to be clear. "No it isn't there's a cop car coming down the street, stay hidden," advised Domino. I turned around and walked over to his side. The bright, intense illumination coming from the headlight of squad car made me cover my eyes with one of my wings for a few seconds. The cop car continued down the street until stopped a couple blocks from where Jack, Amber, and Bash are hiding. Two police officers got out their car and walked down into an alley shinning their flashlights. "Umm, Jack we have a problem," I quivered.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"The car stopped at an alley fairly close to you," I answered.

"Don't worry Spyro; we'll just wait it out. They'll leave eventually."

For the next five minutes we waited for the cops to leave, but they should no sign of leaving anytime soon. I wondered why Bash and the rest of them didn't go in while they were looking in the alley, but I soon realized that even though Jack is taking many big risks before entering the museum, he doesn't want end the mission before it even starts. "They're still there, Jack. Do you want me to fire a couple of warning shots? It might make them leave," asked Domino who's looking down the sight of his gun.

"No, doing that will only make them stay longer, and get more cops here. Our plan will be over before it started," stated Jack.

"Can you tell why they are there?" asked Amber.

"I don't know, they're still searching the alley. They might be investigating why all the lights suddenly went out, but I can't tell. Either way, it looks like they're not leaving anytime soon," answered Domino. We don't have forever to wait; the sun will be rising in a few hours.

"Domino, Spyro see if you can handle them. Make them leave; if you don't hurry we'll have to abort the mission. I don't think we'll another chance at stealing the portal," said Jack. The realization had hit me that this could be my only hope of getting home; we have to get the portal, even if this mission ends up killing me.

"Well, what do you think we should do?" asked Domino.

"I'll fly down there and see if I can find a way to get them to leave. You can keep watch over me from here," I suggested.

"Alright, sounds like a plan."

I jumped off the side of the building and spread my wings. I flew to the car and I hid behind it, I peered into the alley. I noticed the police officers shinning their flashlights searching the alley. What they're searching for, I don't know, maybe for evidence to some crime. I left the cover of the police car and I slowly crept towards them. I went behind a dumpster.

I'm trying to think of some way to make them leave the area. The two of the officers kept searching in the alley, having a conversation between them. An idea quickly popped into my head. I banged one of paws on the dumpster; it caused a loud, booming sound. The lights from the flashlights quickly came over to me. I'm hidden by the shadows of the dumpster that were illuminated from the light. I dashed across the light, after that I hid behind the police car to listen to their reactions. I decided to use my status as being a foreigner on this planet to help me with removing these officers from the vicinity.

"Did you see that?" asked one of the officers.

"Yeah," the other responded.

The light slowly crept to where I'm hiding. "Spyro, what are you doing?" said Domino in my headset.

"Thinking of a plan. Do you think you can hit the headlight without them noticing?"

"Yeah I think, the silencer will be able to suppress the noise from the gun and the impact shouldn't make too much sound. But I can't take the risk of the cops being to close. Move them back deeper into alley," said Domino. I let out a small grunt of frustration; I led them to the car for this purpose only to find out it was meant for nothing. I jumped over the car, startling the two police officers, and flew back deeper into the alley. The cops followed me back deeper into the alley. "Firing a shot," said Domino. A few seconds later I heard a low toned sound of glass breaking on the headlight. The two officers turned their heads, completely forgetting about me, and walked back to their patrol car. One of them bent over to inspect the broken headlight.

"The damn headlight's busted," said a cop.

"How?" asked the other.

"I don't know looks like someone brought a hammer to it."

"Should we call a tow?"

"No, I think we can make it back to the station from here. Come on, let's go."

The two of them got back into their car, and turned it on, with only one of the headlights working and drove off. "They're leaving," I said.

"Spyro, fly back to Domino," said Jack. I followed Jack's command, and jumped into the air and soared to the building that Domino and I are using, Domino's still looking down the sight of his gun. "Good job," he said as I landed on top of the building. I'm worried about how this heist is going. I hope we got over the hard part, but unfortunately, we're just getting started.

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Jack's POV

I saw the light coming from the police car driving down the road. All of us tried to hide ourselves from the darkness. Once they turned down onto another street, we crept around the corner and walked to the entrance, keeping a good eye on our surroundings. We climbed the small flight of stairs to revolving doors. Amber began trying to push on one the revolving doors, but, not unexpected, they didn't move. "Stand back," I ordered. Bash and Amber moved behind me, I raised my shotgun at the door's glass, and I fired my gun. The sound of the shattering glass must've alerted the security guards. "Damn it Jack!" whispered Amber in rage.

"It's the only way to get in, besides we were going to run into the security guards anyway. Bash, stay hidden while Amber and I deal with the security guards," I said. Amber let out a small grunt, and followed me into the museum. Bash leapt into some nearby bushes to stay concealed. We saw a flashlight shining at us, our black clothes being illuminated by their light. Amber fired a round at his arm. He roared in pain as he fell to the ground. I ran over to him with zip ties in my hand while Amber's watching my back. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to," I whispered as I bounded his hands. I took his weapon out of his holster, and took all the ammunition out of it. I tossed the gun into a nearby garbage bin. "Bowdon, are you okay? I heard a crash coming from the main hall," I heard coming from the security guard's radio. I reached to his side and grabbed his walkie talkie.

"Tell that everything's okay," I directed.

"Go to hell," he spat.

Amber cocked her shotgun and pointed it at him. Even though I couldn't see her face, she still gave off a threatening aura. I put the radio in his face and pressed down on it so he could talk, he reluctantly agreed. "Everything's fine, I just tripped, that's all," he said. He looked with anger and agitation in his eyes. "Well, alright then. Keep on the lookout, Thomason is still trying to get the generator to get working," said the voice from the walkie talkie. I turned off the radio and dragged him into a supply room that's in the main room and locked the door, he struggled the whole way.

For the next few minutes we searched another couple of rooms within the museum. We found Thomason and the guy talking on the radio. Like with Bowdon, they resisted but eventually gave in. "Bash, it's safe to come in. We'll meet you by the door," I said. Amber and I walked to the front entrance. Bash walked through the destroyed revolving door. We walked into the main lobby that housed the entrances to the three rooms. I looked to my right and saw the _Oddities of the Universe _sign posted high above the entrance to the room. Amber and I kept our shotguns ready at the fire; we kept scanning the room just in case we missed a security guard.

We entered into the room. I remembered how large the room is, the new renovations made it seem ten times bigger. I saw the portal now resting on top of a large platform, we approached it. As we got closer I noticed something coming from one of the notches on the portal. The mountain on the notch is glowing a very faint brown. I remembered the time Spyro and I were here, I remember how the asterisk glowed purple. Amber noticed the abnormality as well. "Weird," she whispered. Bash approached the portal. "To think, the door to my home is right in front of me, but I forgot the key," he said. Bash jumped on top of the portal to see if it would work, his luck was similar to Spyro's, nothing happened.

"Stay on task, Bash," I ordered.

"Umm, Jack I just realized a problem," observed Bash.

"What is it?"

"How are we going to get the portal out of the museum once I pick it up? I haven't noticed any exits that are big enough for the portal?"

"Crap," I said to myself. I remember the few days we had to organize our plan, I thought we'd thought every detail, but I missed a very crucial point. I spent the next couple of minutes thinking of way to make an exit. "Umm… Drobot did you make it back to the cars?" I asked into my earpiece.

"Yeah, just made it back," he replied.

"Do you think you can figure out a way to make a large enough exit for Bash to carry out the portal?"

"I might, I need to search the perimeter of the building for a weak point."

"Alright, make it quick."

"Jack, you need to get out of there!" shouted Domino. Nervousness entered into my body. I don't need to deal with any more problems tonight.

"What's wrong?"

"That cop car came back; they just stopped in front of the museum. Two police officers just got out of the car; they're going into the museum now. Take the back exit," Spyro warned.

"We can't leave now; we're already too far into the plan. Drobot, stay at the vehicles. Bash, stay here and hide. Amber, let's go neutralize them."

She nodded her head and followed me out into the main room. We looked around, and saw no sign of the two police officers, they must've went into the different rooms, I signaled Amber to go into the room on the left, while I go into the center room. She walked off, shotgun at the ready, into her room. I did the same and walked into the center room. I looked around the place; I noticed a light coming from a flashlight in the corner of the room. I silently made my way towards the light. As I crept my way towards it, I accidentally bumped into a stand and that had a large chunk of rock encased on top of it. It looked like a meteorite, but unfortunately not the kind of meteorites that Spyro, Drobot, and Bash used to be. The cop heard me and turned off their flashlight. I continued in the same direction the cop was in, but took a different, less obvious route. I couldn't see much, the lack of light made it difficult to navigate my way. I eventually made to where the light used to be shining, but nobody was there. I continued to search the area.

"Freeze!" shouted a voice from behind. I stopped dead in my tracks. The voice seemed oddly familiar to me, but I couldn't exactly remember who it was. "Drop your weapon," commanded the officer in a fierce tone. I followed their orders; I slowly placed my shotgun on the ground. "Turn around," ordered the cop. I slowly rotated my body towards the officer, soon my eyes met theirs. I suddenly knew who it is.

"Keep your hands up!" shouted Erica Grapard. She didn't recognize who I am because of the sunglasses and bandanna I'm using to mask my face. Part of me wanted to tell who I am, but I know I can't. "Kick over the weapon," she commanded. I continued to follow her requests, as if I really had a choice. I kicked the shotgun, it slid over to her. It's strange to think that I held a gun with her about a week ago, now she's holding one at me. "Pull down your mask," she directed. Unlike earlier, I didn't follow her command. Instead, I just stood there. "I said pull down your mask!" she yelled. I can't let her know who I am. How would she react to knowing who I am, she wouldn't be able to understand what I'm doing. I will have to fight her if I have to.

She edged her way to me. I couldn't do anything with her holding a gun to my body; I had to keep my hands up high. She crept until she's a foot away from me. With her gun in one hand, she gradually began to raise her other hand towards the black bandanna that covered most of my face. All of the sudden, something had bashed her in the back of the head. She fell to the ground, unconscious. I looked back up and saw Amber standing there with her shotgun in one hand. Amber had bashed Grapard in the head with the butt of her gun. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How did you know I was in trouble?"

"I didn't, the other cop was right near the entrance of the room I searched and I was quickly able to take him out. I thought you could use an extra hand, and clearly you did," she said as she handed me my shotgun.

"Well good timing then," I said. I looked back down at the unconscious body of Grapard. I felt bad for about what happened. I know what we're doing is wrong, but when it involves someone you know, someone who saved your life more than once, it destroys me inside. "Drobot, go back searching. I suggest try the main entrance in the front of the building, it'll be the quickest way out of here and I don't care about subtlety or discreetness anymore. We only have about a few hours until sunrise, and we need to get a head start before the authorities get here. We probably now have less time since those two cops came. The police department will think they're missing. Amber, go back to Bash. I'll handle Grapard," I said.

"Who's Grapard?" asked Amber.

"I'll explain later."

Amber left this part of the museum. I grabbed a firm grasp on Grapard's inanimate arms and dragged her body to a nearby supply closet. I opened the closet door and zip tied her hands together. I took her radio and her weapon away. "I'm sorry you had to be involved in this Grapard," I said as I closed the closet door. I locked it and began to pace back to the right room. I made it back in there to see Amber and Bash waiting for me.

"Guys, I just made a big enough exit from the main entrance," said Drobot in my earpiece.

"Alright, Bash get ready, we're leaving now," I said aloud.

"Finally," he exclaimed. Bash got up from his sitting position and walked over to the portal. He went behind the portal and bent his head down and began to lift it. His strength stunned both me and Amber as he was able to get a small area of leverage on the massive portal. He crawled under the portal, the gap getting bigger as he made his way toward the center. When he got to the center, he pushed with all the strength he has in his body and started to lift the portal. The portal looks like it is levitating. Unless you bend beneath the portal, you couldn't see Bash. "Let's go," he breathed.

We began our slow journey back to the vehicles. Bash is strong, but the size of the portal is starting to weigh him down. But he pushed on; eventually we made it to the main entrance, where Drobot is waiting from us. The revolving doors were removed. Drobot had sawed them off with laser beams he can control with his eyes, the areas where the revolving doors used to be are still smoldering. I looked over to Drobot. "What? You told me you didn't care about subtlety," he said in a sarcastic tone. I rolled my eyes as we all walked down the steps with Bash being careful with each step. "Domino, Spyro once we get out of your FOV, get off the roof and start leaving the city," I said into my earpiece. I checked the street, luckily no cars were coming.

We made our way around the corner, and the vehicles are in our sight. I ran over to the trailer and unlatched it. I slowly the back down and I settled it on the ground. Bash walked up the back and he lowered the front portion of the portal onto the ground. He began to crawl out the back, setting the portal down as he went. Eventually, the portal lay firmly on top of the trailer. "We're done," relieved Amber as Bash jumped off the side of the trailer. I took out the tarps we found earlier from the back of the truck and began to lay them down on top of the portal. Amber helped me tie the tarps down to the trailer. "Can you see any part of the portal," I asked aloud as I searched the tarp covered portal with my flashlight.

"There's nothing I can see," said Bash.

"Alright, let's get going," I said. Drobot followed Amber to her car, while Bash jumped into the truck that we stole. I started up the truck and left the parking lot first, shortly after Amber followed. By now, Domino and Spyro are already out on the road, following the meticulous route we had planned out for when we drive out of here.

My mind kept going back to Grapard. I'm starting to wonder how many more times I'm going to have to risk my life for them and how many people I am going to have to hurt until the three Skylanders get back to their own home.

**Thanks for reading; again I'm sorry about the delay. I hate waiting a month to upload. I promise I'll try not to make a habit out of it. If you enjoyed the chapter, please be awesome and give it a review. **


	15. Burnt Embers

**Hey everybody, I'm glad I was able to get this chapter out faster than last time, I hate taking too long to upload. Thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy the chapter. **

We have been driving for a day straight, only stopping for when we need gas. We're taking dirt roads and paths nobody would be on. We had a convoy system; Domino would drive out about a mile in front to keep a lookout for any trouble. I stayed in the middle, while Amber followed about a quarter mile behind me. Bash kept waking up and falling asleep. I can't blame him, after lifting the portal and taking it a considerably long distance; he drained his energy. Also we haven't talked a whole lot. I'm not that depressed about that. Frankly, I'm not fond of these Skylanders. Drobot still doesn't seem to trust me and Spyro broke my trust. Bash, the couple of times we did communicate, kept trying to convince me that I should get over it. The Skylanders to me right now are just nonpaying clients I work for, but I made a promise to help them. I always keep my promises, whether or not I want to fulfill them.

We're still on the road, nearing our destination, but still a little ways. I checked the portal behind me, to make sure the tarps still covered the portal. I kept the radio on, it's playing some kind of music that I didn't pay any attention to. I decided to change the station; I skimmed through random stations until one caught my attention.

"Police investigators are still attempting to figure what happened at New Mexico's Museum of Aerospace and Science in Santa Fe. Early yesterday morning two masked and armed persons entered the building and assaulted and rendered three security guards and two police officers unconscious. Upon their opening yesterday, museum workers found them tied up in supply closets throughout the museum. Only one item is noted to be missing, which is an oddly large meteorite which fell to Earth over 20 years ago. At the moment, it's unknown to how it was taken. Police and museum officials stated it is impossible to take such things without the use of machinery. They're also unsure if the power outrage is connected to the robbery or not, which would signal an accomplice. Officer David Adana stated: he and his partner, Erica Grapard, entered the museum while on patrol last night when they noticed an abnormality near the museum. They approached the entrance and noticed unusual damage and deemed it necessary to enter. Shortly after Officer Adana was attacked by a masked robber and locked in a supply closet. The description about these two robbers is very little. Police have only stated that they're a young male and a young female. If anybody has any information, please contact the Santa Fe Police Department at…"

I turned off the radio not wanting to hear more of what I had done. The line between right and wrong has always been blurry to me, but unfortunately it has to be a necessary evil to me. At least they don't know who we are. The list of suspects has to be pretty small, not many people would risk their life taking the portal. Also the police wouldn't even know the giant meteorite is a portal. Odds are they would be searching the city of Santa Fe for the portal. They probably wouldn't look to me and the rest of us as being the culprits. We took the back roads and we haven't come across many people. The people we did see didn't even care to give us a glance. So they don't know we came from Santa Fe.

For the next twenty minutes I continued to drive on the route that we planned. I reached the entrance to the destination we agreed to go to. I saw Domino and Spyro waiting for me; the path to the airstrip has been blocked off by an old, rusted gate that had an aging sign that says "Restricted Access." Overgrown vines had winded itself throughout the chain-link fence.

"Are you sure nobody's in there?" asked Domino as Bash and I got out of the truck.

"Yeah, this place was closed down after the Vietnam War. The government hasn't done anything with it for over 20 years; I doubt they'll be back here anytime soon. The airstrip is still deeper in there, so don't worry about people driving across this road seeing us," I said. A few seconds later I saw Amber's car pull up with Drobot next to the gate. She looked exhausted, for good reason, we all have been driving for more than a day straight. I went to the flatbed of the truck and took out a pair of bolt cutters. The gate is only locked by a simple old, rusted chain locked with an aged combination lock. I cut the combination lock off and it fell to the ground. I opened up the gate. "Domino, you drive in first. I'll go in second, and Amber you drive in last and lock the gate behind you with another lock," I commanded.

Everyone got back into their vehicles and drove through the gate. After Amber got her Charger through the gate, she got out of her car again and closed the gate and put a new lock on it. She got back into her car and followed us to the airstrip. The pathway has been overgrown with weeds and other brush; it looked like the apocalypse had already happened to this place. We soon reached the airstrip; the place had a few large hangers we could use to store the portal. The hangers' conditions are about as good as the fence that surrounds this area, but at least they look structurally stable. On the side of one of the hangers, it had a garage door opening that could let us in. We couldn't use the front because it's too large to open without the power on. Domino and I lifted the garage door opened and everyone brought the vehicles into the hanger. Once we were inside, I was amazed by the size of this place. The ceiling is about 30 feet above our heads and a couple of old and the other side of the hanger seemed about another 100 feet away from us. A couple of old, small airplanes still inhabited this place.

"Bash, get the portal off the trailer. Set it wherever you want."

"Really? I have to pick that thing up again," he complained.

"Just do it, Bash. You're only moving a couple of feet."

"You're not the one having to do the heavy lifting."

I lowered the back of the trailer for him. I untied the ropes attached to the trailer and tarp and I tossed tarps in the back of the truck. I stepped off the side and Bash got up and went over to the portal. He picked it up and moved it just as he did back at the museum. He grunted as he moved off the trailer and he walked over to a few feet from the vehicles and he dropped it onto the ground. Spyro and Drobot moved closer to the portal. I noticed the asterisk starting to glow a faint purple again, and the gear on one of the other notches started to faintly glow orange. Also the mountain still glows a faint brown. "Drobot do your work," I said. One of the biggest reasons we took the portal is for Drobot to see what's wrong with the portal, seems like a long time ago since we made this plan. "I'm gonna need a few minutes," he responded.

"Take as long as you need," said Amber as she rubbed her eyes.

I walked over to the wall and I leaned on it. My body started to slide down the wall until I reached the ground. Amber saw me and she walked over and sat down next to me. "You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm just exhausted," I answered.

"Same here, riding with that green dragon didn't make the trip any better."

"Why, what did he do?"

"Nothing really, he just kept watching me, as if I was about to attack him or something. It didn't make the drive over here any easier."

"Yeah, I'm not surprised."

"Hey, you know you never did tell who Grapard was," she said. The whole way here my mind was on the heist we did, particularly Grapard.

"Remember when I told you about the bank robbery that I helped stop in Santa Fe. Well there was another cop there, her partner was dead, and I probably saved her life by showing up. But she saved my life more than once, and she ignored the fact that I took Drobot when he was still a meteorite. Grapard was the same cop back at the museum that I took care of. I hated the fact that she had to be there."

"Wow, I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine. What's done is done anyway," I said. I noticed Spyro listening in on our conversation; he gave me a deathly stare at my last statement. We haven't really had a long conversation since I confronted him after he revealed himself to Amber and Domino.

"What's done is done?" he said.

"Spyro let's deal with this later."

"No, I've tried apologizing a hundred times, but it seems you can never accept what happened. Again, I'm sorry for what happened. I never meant for you to get harmed in the process, and this has only benefitted you. So please get over it. If your friends can forgive you, why can't you forgive me?" yelled Spyro. Everyone around the room looked towards us. He did have a point; Amber and Domino were both able to get over the fact that I hid Spyro and Drobot from them. Although slowly, I noticed that they've grown accustomed to seeing these aliens, as I had did. The only way I've survived these past few years is because of the trust I had in my allies, my friends. Spyro has continued to trust me, even though I don't trust him. He hasn't done anything to me since. The only one denying his trust is me.

"Fine, I forgive you and I'm sorry I've been acting like an ass to you." I apologized.

"Really?"

"Yes, if we're gonna be working together, then we need to trust each other. My stubbornness shouldn't be a part of this," I said. Spyro had a look of shock on his face, but he knew that I meant it.

"Thank you Jack," said Spyro. He walked off and sat back down next to Bash. Amber looked at me with curiosity. "Did you really mean that?" she asked.

"Yeah, I did," I answered.

Drobot continued his examination of the portal. He particularly looked at the notches that glowed. He continued this for the next few minutes, sometimes asking Spyro or Bash to come closer to the portal. "Alright, I think I know the problem everyone," shouted Drobot. Everyone got up from whatever they were doing and approached Drobot and the portal. "So what's wrong?" asked Spyro. He probably is wondering what's wrong with it more than everyone here. He and I did a lot of work to get where we are, but it isn't like we haven't had any help along the way. I turned my head to the left and saw Amber standing next to me. I looked to my right and saw Domino, Spyro, and Bash. Each of us has done our part in one way or another.

"Well one of the major differences between Earth and Skylands is that Skylands has magic enchanted into it. Here on this world it seems to be void of it. The Portal of Power uses magic, since none it is around of us it's no wonder why the portal didn't work for any of us. Normally when one of us tries to use the portal we jump on top of it we disperse into the air and materialize at another portal somewhere else. Usually the symbols are always lighten back on Skylands, regardless if someone uses it or not, but obviously that's not the case," stated Drobot.

"But what about the symbols that glow when you, Spyro, or Bash are around it?" I inquired.

"The only explanation I can give is that since all of us are from Skylands we give off some kind of aura that is significant to each of our elements. The portal picks up on that aura and starts glow that particular element. I'm thinking if we can get Skylanders with each of these elements it could be enough to power the portal and we can get home,"

"So if we get one of each of you Skylanders, you go home?" asked Domino.

"Not exactly, I don't think one of each will be enough. When one of us is near the portal, the symbol doesn't glow nearly as much as it does on Skylands. I don't think it will have enough power to if we just use one of each element," answered Drobot.

"So what you're saying is we need to get every Skylander we can find," I said as my mouth gaped open. My mind raced on the insane journey it was to save Drobot and Bash. It wasn't easy figuring out there locations either. I looked over to Spyro, both him and I know how difficult this insurmountable task is ahead of us.

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Marcus King's POV

I screwed on a silencer to my AK-74M. I'm sitting in the passenger's seat of our getaway car. We're parked right behind a large building inside of Los Angeles. "Is everybody ready?" I called out. I pulled down my ski mask and slid a magazine into my gun, praying I don't have to use it. "Everyone's ready. What's our objective?" asked Gorelli who is in the back of the car with two other Dultras. I held up a picture of the meteorite that Octavio wanted me to search for. "We're looking for this meteorite that fell here last week. The man who has the meteorite is on the 14th floor of this building, his name is Michael Yelets. Keep safeties on, I don't want any unnecessary bloodshed. Octavio himself said he wanted this thing, so keep that in my mind, but we don't need any necessary attention. Tiran, keep the car running, once we get back take the route I told you, we'll skip any red light cameras and major areas. Everybody else will come in with me," I commanded.

Everyone, dressed in the same kind of paraphernalia I'm in, we walked into to the back of the building to avoid attracting attention from the main lobby. "We need to hit the security room first," I said. The group nodded and followed. We approached the maintenance elevator, it required a keycard. "Maxton, see what you can do. The rest of us will keep watch," I said. Maxton is one of the Dultra's best locksmiths. From the files I read on him he's usually involved in jobs that require a more subtle approach then rather the show of brute force that the Dultra's usually show. Octavio would've rather me slaughter my way in here then take the quieter approach, in the end he allowed me to direct the mission as I see fit.

I began to hear footsteps coming our way. I tapped Gorelli on the shoulder and directed to follow me. I directed Reggie, the other Dultra that came with us, to stay with Maxton. We crept our way to the approaching footsteps. We went to the corner of the hallway; I peered over the corner and saw the approaching employee. He's looking down at his cell phone texting someone, he didn't notice us. He turned the corner, but he went in the direction opposite of us, again, he didn't notice us. I decided not to take the chance to let him roam free while we're on this level. I sheathed my assault rifle onto my back and stealthily crept up to him. I quickly placed my arm around his neck. In shock, he dropped his cell phone on the ground as I began to choke him. Soon, he was rendered unconscious. Gorelli and I dragged his limb body into a maintenance closet. I tied his hands with some of the rope I found there. Gorelli gagged him with some cloth that he found.

We made our way back to elevator, by now Maxton had been able to unlock the elevator. We waited for it to come to our floor. We all stepped into the elevator, and I pressed the button that has a seven. The elevator took us to the seventh floor and the door opened up. Since this is the maintenance elevator, we're in the back hallways where people shouldn't be at. The security room is in the middle of the level. We slowly made our way to it, taking our time. Luckily, we didn't run into anyone. Everyone just stayed in their own individual office. We saw the room and we made our way to it.

I entered the room first and noticed that the security guard monitoring the security cameras was asleep on his job. It could explain why we had little trouble making our way to this level. As Maxton entered into the room he accidently knocked over a coffee mug that was on the table. The mug shattered upon impact on the ground. The security guard woke up. He saw our guns and masks dawned upon our faces. He began to panic, Gorelli bashed the butt of his gun into face and the security guard returned to his unconscious state. Reggie tossed him a zip tie that he brought with him. Gorelli bounded his hands behind the chair. "Gorelli stay here and keep an eye on things, we're going back to the maintenance elevator. I'll radio you when we're about head out," I said. He nodded his head and the rest of us turned towards the exit. We checked the outside area before we left the room. Again, to our luck, nobody is outside of the room. The three of us left the room and made our way towards the elevator, keeping a good eye on our surroundings. We made it back to the maintenance elevator with no trouble and Maxton unlocked it for us again.

We made our way into the elevator. Reggie pressed the button with 14 next to it. The elevator began to lift us up into the air, taking us to our destination. The door opened to a large area, it had only a few big desks for receptionists and couches for people to sit on while they wait to meet someone. We exited the elevator. This floor is different than the rest. The only few people that usually occupy this floor are a couple of receptionists and the man we're looking for. Only one person is in the receptionist area for the moment. All of us gave off a threatening demeanor as we walked towards the receptionist with our guns in our hands. She got up from her desk and backed up from fear. Maxton's in front and held his gun toward her. "Where is Michael Yelets?" said Maxton in a threatening tone. She pointed to the room behind her. "Please don't hurt me," she pleaded.

"Stay with her, make sure she doesn't try anything," I directed Maxton.

Reggie and I made our towards Yelets's office. We barged our way through the door. We saw him sitting at his desk. We pointed our guns at him, and slowly approached him. He looked scared, but looked calm. From across the desk I held my silenced assault rifle to his head. "Where's the meteorite you found a few days ago?" I asked. He held his hands up to his shoulders, and kept his composure. "Behind the painting, there's a safe. The code is 5790," he answered calmly.

"You know what I'm going to do if you're lying, right?" I said.

"I'm not one to risk my life, just take what you want and leave."

Reggie kept an eye on him while I walked over to the painting. I unhooked it off the wall, and saw the safe. I entered the code into the keypad. A green light lit up and it let me access the safe. I opened it up and I saw the meteorite we're looking for on top of a few stacks of $100 bills and files. I grabbed the odd meteorite and closed the safe. "Let's go," I said.

Reggie bounded his hands and kept his aim on him as we left the room. We made our way into the receptionist area. I signaled Maxton to follow us out; the receptionist is sitting on one of the couches in the room, cowering in fear. We went back to the maintenance elevator. Maxton unlocked it, and the elevator opened up. "Gorelli, we're done. Come to the maintenance elevator now. The police are probably gonna show up soon if we don't hurry up and leave," I said into my radio.

"On my way. By the way I erased all the footage of us coming in," he replied.

"Good work," I said. I pressed the seventh floor button and the elevator slowly started to go down. We arrived at the seventh floor, and it opened up. I saw the masked gunman, Gorelli, waiting for us. He entered into the elevator. Maxton pressed the button that'll take us to the first floor. Again, the maintenance elevator started to take us down to the first floor. "Tiran, we're coming down," I said into my radio. The elevator came to a slow stop and the door opened up. We walked out and followed the path out of the building. We departed from the building and got back into the getaway car.

I got back into the passenger's seat. Tiran began to nonchalantly drive away from the building, taking the route I told him to take. I took out the meteorite and examined over it. It looked like a strange figurine that was made from someone on a foreign world. I remember hearing about the meteor shower that took place a little over a week ago. A couple of days after that Octavio started using the Dultra's resources in finding these things, but since they seem to have an unlimited supply of money, nobody seemed to notice. I continued to look over the violet dragoness that sat on top of this meteorite, its piercing blue eyes stuck into my soul.

Many people have died to get trying things. Today we got lucky, we had minimal conflict, but it won't be like this every time. If Octavio keeps following this pattern, I can predict that many more bullets will be flying and many more bodies will fall to the ground.

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry if Marcus King's section was too similar to my last chapter, writing heist story bits aren't my greatest strength. If you like the story, please be epic and give it a review. **


	16. Reunion

**Hey everybody, sorry it took forever to upload again. One of my teachers decides to keep giving me essays which take forever to finish. I also want to thank you for getting this story over 70 reviews. It's amazing in my mind to find many people enjoy my story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new chapter.**

Jack's POV

Everyone around me is still astonished at what we have to do. I knew there was going to be a lot of work, but now, I don't know how we can possibly do this. I nearly killed myself trying to get Drobot and Bash. Now that we already got Bash and stole the portal from the museum, Domino and Amber have no reason to continue to help me. I'm leaning on one of the walls of the hanger, staring at what everyone is doing; trying to figure what to do next. I glanced to my right and noticed Amber coming toward me.

"Hey," I nodded.

She walked over to my side. "So, what's your plan?" she asked.

"I don't have one," I answered.

"We will have to figure out something, it's not like we can pull out now, we're in too deep."

"We? I thought you would be heading home soon. I'm not forcing you to help me on this mission; you're already over involved as it is. If something goes wrong, I don't want you or Domino to get in caught in the wrath that'll follow," I warned.

"Jack I thought by now you would've realized that we're in this together. If you're with me, then I'm with you," she said.

"Good, I'm still not sure what we're gonna do," I said.

"Give it time, we'll think of something."

For the next few hours we all did our own thing. Drobot was extracting anything of use he could find from the old planes that are in the hanger. I saw Bash sleeping in the flatbed of the truck; no doubt he's still exhausted from the museum heist. Spyro spent his time exploring the gigantic hanger; he sometimes flew up to the top of the ceiling to get a vantage point. He found a couple of small rooms in the far corner of the hanger that we could use. I commandeered one of them to myself; I wanted my own personal bedroom. The room is very miniscule, only housing a rotting desk. There's hardly any room for a cot. The walls showed some deterioration with signs of mold and termite damage. Maybe I'll update this place someday. The other room we designated to be cache to hold the weapons. When we left the house in Tucumcari, we used the trunk of my car to house all the guns and weapons that Amber brought with her. Since we're probably gonna be here for a while, I don't want the weapons stashed in my Mustang.

I drove my car to near the room so we didn't have to walk a long distance to bring the weapons to the room. I popped the trunk, and Domino, Amber, and I began to bring some of the weapons into the room. We placed them onto hooks on the wall. We still had a couple of containers of bullets that needed to be placed into their respective magazines. I grabbed a container and about ten empty clips, and sat back down next to the wall. Amber followed suit and sat back down next me. She took half of the magazines I had, and we began to put each individual bullet into the magazine.

"So, did you think of anything?" she asked as we began working. For the last few hours I began to reminisce over the time since I met Spyro. I don't know why, but I remembered back to the night I met Spyro at my apartment. "Maybe, I remember the day that the Skylanders fell to Earth. I brought him back to my place. There was a news program; they mentioned that some of them fell to Los Angeles. I also remember on that map of where the Skylanders fell about seven of them are there. Maybe we could try looking there first," I suggested.

"Are you sure? L.A. is a pretty big city. What are the odds will find anything?" she asked.

"I don't know, but it's a start. It's more than we have now," I stated.

"True," she said. I kept placing bullets into the empty clips. Time seemed to go by quickly, we finished filling up the magazines and went back to the cache room. I saw most of the guns hanging off the wall, while a few are lying on a table. Under the table is an empty crate. I pulled it out and Amber and I placed the magazines in there. We exited the cramp room and I noticed Spyro walking by.

"Spyro, get everyone and tell them to meet us by the portal. We need to figure out what were gonna do next," I shouted. He nodded and flew to Domino and the rest of the Skylanders. We walked to the portal, soon everyone collected around us. Amber stood next to my side, the three dragons and Domino stood in front of us. "So, we know what's wrong, and we know the solution, but there is no easy way to do this; we need a plan," I stated. I nodded my head to Spyro to speak, we're working on way to save his world, he deserves a say in all of this. "Well, I think we should do what Drobot said. We need to start finding the Skylanders," he said.

"Yeah, but last time I remembered, finding these things wasn't exactly easy," admitted Domino.

"Actually, I used some of my FBI contacts to find Bash, and Amber found Drobot pretty easily," I said.

"Well I had a lot more information to go on, remember that, but you also said about starting in Los Angeles," said Amber.

"What's Los Angeles?" asked Bash.

"It's the largest city in the Western United States, a lot of the meteorites fell there. I'm thinking that we start there, it's only about 75 miles from here, so were not too far away," I answered.

"What about the portal?" asked Drobot.

"We'll just have to leave it here for now, and hope nobody comes," I said.

"That's a terrible idea! We spent so much time getting it and I'm not going to let it sit here unguarded," he angrily shouted. I could sense his growing distrust.

"Then what do you propose we do?" I countered. There was silence between us for a few moments as Drobot tried to sum up an answer. "Let me stay, I can guard it while you search for the other Skylanders," he answered. We're all stunned by his idea, I personally liked it. It would get rid a thorn in my side.

"Are you sure Drobot? It seems pretty dangerous being out here by yourself," said Spyro as he approached Drobot.

"He won't be, I'll stay too," interrupted Bash. All of us looked over to him. It seems like an insane idea for them to stay here by themselves, but bringing them to a highly populated city doesn't sound smart either. Drobot does have a point; we invested a lot of time and risk into getting the portal, leaving it here would only bring more risk, but also leaving Drobot and Bash here sounds like another risky idea. "Drobot, Bash we'll be gone for quite a while. What are you gonna do for food?" I questioned.

"On the way here I saw some farmland, I'll just fly over there and take some of the crops at night," he said.

"Are you sure can handle being by here by yourselves, I mean we don't have any meet up point or any form of communication?" asked Domino.

"I saw some old antennas on top of the some of the buildings here at the airstrip; maybe I can repair them and bolster their signal to communicate with you, but what about you? What are you going to do for residency once you reach the city?" inquired Drobot.

"I have a few contacts in L.A. that owe me a favor," I said.

"Good, we can head out there soon," said Domino.

"Actually Domino I have a different job for you," I said. All heads turned towards me.

"What?" he asked.

"I need you to go back to Pensacola, Dylan is probably back from London by now and he's gonna start getting suspicious about where I am and what I'm doing. I need someone I can trust to keep my eye on him," I said. It's been a while since I talked to him. If anything, Dylan is persistent, he'll keep pushing me to tell him what I'm doing. If Domino can watch over him, and divert him away from me it'll be one less problem I have to deal with. "Really? I nearly get myself killed, and in return I'm doing recon," he complained.

"Domino it's not like I don't appreciate your help, but I need Amber to come with me, and I'll call you the second I need you, but now I need your help on a different job, okay?" I said.

"Alright," he reluctantly agreed. He gave me a blank, angered stare, but he eventually calmed down.

"So when do we leave?" asked Spyro as he approached me and Amber.

"We'll go tomorrow, take the rest of the day for yourselves and get some rest. We're gonna have a lot work to do soon."

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We left a few hours ago, leaving Drobot and Bash at the airstrip. I'm still not really sure if I can trust them there by their selves, but our interests are aligned, they won't do anything to jeopardize the mission. Domino took Amber's car home. He still wasn't happy about me telling to go back home to keep an eye Dylan, but I need someone I can trust on this necessary job. He is a good soldier; he has definitely proved himself at the art gallery and the museum.

Amber, Spyro, and I are in my car sitting in traffic in Beverly Hills. I looked out my window and saw the many cars that flooded the streets. "So Jack, who exactly is your contact here?" asked Amber who's sitting the passenger's seat. Spyro is in the back seat, making sure to keep his head below the windows. He looked just as curious as Amber, I never had told them about who we're meeting. "I have a cousin who moved here to Los Angeles about six months ago, she's owes me a favor," I answered.

"What did you do for her?" asked Spyro.

"A couple of years ago some members of the Bloody Rangers kidnapped my cousin, Rachael. They wanted to lure me into trap, which they did successfully do, but I brought Dylan and Alex with me as backup. We narrowly escaped, but we got out alive, no causalities, although I can't say the same for the Bloody Rangers," I answered. Rachael is one of the last few family members who haven't disowned me; we grew up together before she moved to Los Angeles. Ever since I saved her life her family has been more open to me, but they still don't like me as much as Rachael does. I think once I overheard my uncle saying that I'm the "black sheep of the family." But Rachael still trusted me; saying that it's unfair of what my family has done. We haven't talked in a while, but we try our best to communicate through email.

We sat in traffic as it continued to move slowly for the next ten minutes, I noticed that Spyro fell asleep in the back because of sheer boredom. We stayed in silence as the rows of cars continued to move slowly. "Jack, can I ask you something?" asked Amber.

"Go ahead," I said.

"This has been bothering me ever since back at the hanger, but why did you send Domino back home to do surveillance on Dylan. You know that's my specialty, so I don't get why you didn't send me back instead," she inquired. The question stunned me; Amber would've better choice to send back. She's specifically trained to deal with those types of tasks, just like Domino's specialty is stealth. I looked back over to Amber. "I don't know, maybe I like you or something," I sarcastically spoke. Amber let out a small chuckle. "I guess maybe I wanted someone with a little more experience, I trust Domino fully, but he still is new to all this," I said trying to sum up an actual answer.

"Huh, well I'm glad you took you me then. Who knows, maybe I like you as well," she sarcastically said. We both laughed a little bit as the traffic began to move. Soon I saw the turn in into the gated neighborhood, and I turned onto the road. We began climbing up the slope of the road; we soon reached the large gate locked off this neighborhood from the rest of the city. The gatekeeper that's usually hired to watch over who enters the neighborhood currently isn't here. I drove up to the keypad. I don't know the code to get in, so I had to call Rachael's house and get her or someone else to buzz me in. I pressed the call button and a list of last names of the residents of the gated community appeared on the small screen on the keypad. I scrolled down until I saw Ashburn, I pressed call on the keypad on and it began to dial the residency. A few seconds later someone picked up.

"Hello?" said Rachael's voice.

"It's me," I answered.

"Hold on, let me buzz you in," she said.

The large, white gate in front of us began to open up. I drove through the gate and we began climb up the hills until I reached the highest one. There are only five houses around this area; my cousin's house is on the very top, it overlooked the entire city. I pulled into the driveway and noticed Rachael waiting for me. I checked the back and saw Spyro still sleeping; he's in a position that no one could notice him unless they knew he's there. Amber and I got out of my car and I walked up to Rachael. We made our way to each other and we threw our arms around each other. "It has been a long time Jack," she said.

"I know, I wish you still lived back in Pensacola," I replied. We released each other from our grasps and Amber walked up.

"You know Amber, right?" I asked.

"I saw her back at school a few times when I still lived back in Florida. So, what brings you here to Los Angeles?"

"It's kind of long a long story, basically the job I was working on sort of got sidetracked to L.A. and I need a place to stay. I'm hoping that your family could let us stay here for a little while."

"Well I would love for you stay, but that's not up to me. You'll have to wait for my parents to get home from work, but you come in while you wait," she offered.

"That sounds great, let me just go back to my car really quick," I said.

"Alright."

Amber and Rachael walked into the large house, going through the large French doors. I paced back to the car, and I banged on the back window. Spyro woke up from his slumber, and I signaled him to get out of the car. I opened up the door for him and he jumped out onto the driveway. I checked my back to see if anyone was watching. "Wow, this is a nice place" he admired. He looked at a huge mansion in front of us, and he also noticed a big fountain in the middle of a small patch of grass. "Yeah, hopefully we get the chance to stay here. Listen I want to fly up to the roof and wait for us. I have to wait and get permission from my aunt and uncle to see if we can stay here. If we leave the house, and get back in the car, odds are we can't, so just fly down to the end of street and we'll pick you up. If we're allowed, then we'll bring our stuff in and I'll try to signal you what rooms we have. Okay?" I commanded. He nodded his head and flew up to the roof of the house. I walked to the front door and entered the house. I was greeted by a large chandelier, hanging above so delicately above my head. I looked down at the wooden floor.

I walked into the large living room, and noticed Amber and Rachael making small chat. I sat myself down on the couch next to my cousin. "So when should your parents get home?" I asked. My uncle is a neurosurgeon, and my aunt is an anesthesiologist. In some ways they and I are similar. We both deal in situations that could easily end or save people's lives.

"My Dad gets home in about a half hour," answered Rachael.

"Good," I said.

We spent the next few minutes catching up what has been happening in our lives. Rachael still has some of her school year left, she's jealous that I'm summer vacation, although she wouldn't be if she knew what I'm doing. She made some new friends, but still misses home. Says it doesn't feel the same here in Los Angeles. My life hasn't been exactly been as great as hers, though. "So how's your family been doing, Jack?" she inquired.

"The same as it has been the past few years, rarely talk to them. Aiden is still the asshole he always been. They kicked me out a few weeks ago; I left them on a pretty sour note. When they told me to leave, I didn't really take it well. I haven't talked to them since," I sadly answered. I don't like talking about my family life, but Rachael is someone I trust, she's someone I can confide in topics like this. "My Dad, told me about that. I still hoped you kept some contact with them," she said. We spent the next few minutes in silence, when I heard the front door open.

"Rachael, whose car is that outside?" called out Vincent, my uncle. He walked out into the living room, he's stunned to see me and Amber. "Hello Uncle Vincent," I said. He placed his keys to his car on a table nearby, and took off his work coat. "Jack. I thought you would call before coming for a visit."

"Sorry, I sort of found my way here to L.A. on a job," I said.

"Dad, Jack and his friend were hoping if they could stay here for a little while," asked Rachael. I was hoping to work my way up to asking him, but apparently Rachael did that for me. I knew what he wanted to answer, but he knows about I've done for his family. I nearly ended my life so I could save my cousin, his daughter. One of the reasons I didn't call was because it's a lot harder to reject someone in person. He waited for the next few minutes trying to find an answer. "Wait till your mother comes home," he answered.

For the next hour we waited until my Aunt Kayla came home. She was about as surprised to see me as my uncle. When Rachael told her about me wanting to stay, my aunt and uncle talked it over for a little while. They didn't seem they wanted me and Amber to stay, they were a bit skeptical of her, but none of my friends really see any of my extended family. If it was up to them they would say no, but the deciding factor would be Rachael. She's the last real connection I have to my family, my uncle and aunt know about that. They both walked into the living room, and confronted all of us. If they say no then I'll have to find shelter somewhere else in the city, which isn't easy. This neighborhood is secluded from other parts of the city; privacy is something we need because of Spyro. "Alright, you can stay. We'll be leaving on vacation in about a week so I guess having you housesit is better than a stranger," said Vincent. His tone suggested that he didn't want me to stay, but he could trust me.

"You're going on vacation?" I inquired to Rachael.

"Yeah, we're going to Spain once school gets out next week," she answered.

"That sucks; I was hoping we could spend a little time more together," I admitted.

"Thanks for letting us stay, we'll try not to be a bother," said Amber who got me back on topic.

"We have a couple of guest rooms on the third floor; we sleep on the second floor so try to keep it down at night," said Aunt Kayla.

"Thanks, let us go get our stuff from my car," I said as I got up from the couch.

"I'll come with you," said Rachael. Amber, Rachael, and I walked out to the driveway. They both are in front and I turned my head to the roof. I noticed a small peculiar purple figure staring down at me. I nodded my head and it nodded back at me and walked out of sight deeper into the roof. I turned my head back towards my car and I opened up my trunk. Amber began to pick up some of her bags. I picked up a duffel bag filled with my clothes and other necessities. Rachael grabbed my computer bag, and another small bag. I looked back in the trunk and saw a few of the weapons I brought from the hanger. I took out an assault rifle, and slinged it onto my back, and grabbed one of the submachine guns in my free hand. "Don't let my Dad see you with those," said Rachael. I rolled my eyes, and we walked back into the house. We began climbing the stairs that's near the entrance, and we walked up to the third floor.

The enormous size of this mansion sunk in once we reached the top floor. The staircase opened up to a large living room like area with couches and another large flat screen television hanging on the wall. At the opposite sides of the room are separate rooms. "You don't have to worry about my parents interrupting you up here, they rarely come up here. Amber take the room on the right, Jack go the room on the left," advised Rachael. I began to walk towards my room behind the couches when Rachael grabbed onto my arm. "I got you the better room," whispered Rachael into my ear. I turned the knob, and pushed the door open.

"Woah," I gasped. The size of the room is enormous; it felt like twice the size of a normal apartment. There's a large king sized bed in the middle of the wall to my right. Directly in front of the bed is another large television sitting on top of a large credenza. On the other side of the bed is a small green couch with an ottoman in front of it. Near the door is a mahogany wooden, circular table with a few plush chairs that accent it perfectly. A few more furnishings were spread out throughout the room. But by far the most amazing feature is the balcony, which is directly on the other side of the room from me. "Damn, you did get me a nice room," I admitted.

I laid my guns down on the table, and placed my duffel bag on the bed as I made my way towards the balcony. I slid open the glass door and stepped outside. I noticed to my right a hot tub embedded into the balcony. I walked over to the guardrail and leaned my arms on it.

"You really know how to treat your guests," I said to Rachael who came up on my right. I stared out to the scenery that the balcony offered. "So why do your parents sleep on the second floor? The third floor seems pretty epic to me," I asked

"Oh believe me Jack, the second floor is much better than the third," said Rachael. It made me wonder what it's like, but for now I wanted to bask in the view. It's rare for somebody in my position to get treated like this. To think I went from a small, one bedroom apartment to a large mansion in Beverly Hills. "I'll let you get settled in," said as Rachael as she patted me on the back. She left the room, and a couple minutes later Amber came in. "I feel like I got cheated," joked Amber as she admired my room. She closed the door and walked out onto the balcony.

"Yeah, well I know the owner," I joked as Amber closed the sliding glass door. I looked away from the view and back towards the roof. "Hey Spyro," I loudly whispered. The purple dragon poked his down and saw Amber and me alone on the balcony. He flew down onto the guardrail and sat on top it. "Wow, the view looks like some of the ones back Skylands," he breathed. Amber and I leaned on the guardrail and stared back out with Spyro. I saw the soon setting sun lowering itself beneath the Pacific Ocean. Some of the large buildings in Santa Monica began to light up. Some of the nightlife began to wake up and started to walk down the many streets of this city. "Amazing to think that seven of my friends are somewhere out there, well at least they're stuck here" said Spyro.

"Yeah, well don't let the beauty of this city trick you, this place has a dark underside. I've seen it too many times," I said.

"You've been here before?"

"Some of our clients live here, we have to travel here often," answered Amber.

"Well now that we have shelter. We have one more piece of business to deal with," said Spyro.

"What?" I asked.

"Who do we find first?"

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I feel like I should mention that only the original 32 Skylanders will appear in my story. So I'm sorry, characters like Jet-Vac or Flashwing won't make an appearance, I made up the plot for this story long before Giants was announced. I hope you can forgive this. Another thing I have to mention is that it takes me a while to make a chapter, so I'm sorry I can't release these chapters quicker. I can't make one chapter in less than day; it's not my writing style. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter and give it a review. **


	17. Over the Shoulder

**Hey everybody, sorry for another long wait for this upload. I still hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Hopefully I can write more during summer break.**

It's the morning after we arrived at Rachael's mansion in Los Angeles. I'm sitting at the table in my room on my computer. I took a drink of my soda, and I set it down on the coaster. "I don't know how you humans can drink that stuff," said Spyro as he lay on the bed watching the television. Spyro slept on the couch last night, while I took the bed. He's a bit jealous, feeling like I've been over privileged. "I'm an American, Spyro. We probably drink it more than anyone else than anyone else in the world," I said as I continued to search on the internet. I've found some more Skylanders on the same website I've used to find where Drobot and Bash landed. I've been trying to find one we can feasibly find without any problems.

I pulled up a picture of a walking blue fish holding some kind of harpoon that landed in the San Fernando Valley. "Spyro, who is this?" I asked. He jumped off the bed and hopped up onto the table to examine the picture on my computer. "That's Gill Grunt; he's one of the few original Skylanders. He's one of my best friends. Are you thinking about getting him?" he asked.

"Maybe, it depends. We don't exactly get to be picky; we're going to have to go off on who we can find easiest," I said. Our mission has changed since the museum heist. It was difficult when we had a plan to follow, but now we don't have much of one.

"I'll go get Amber, and see what we want she thinks," I said as I got up off the chair. I exited into the living room, and saw Amber sitting on the couch reading something. "What're you reading?" I asked.

"Old mission files, it's good to review former missions, learn your weaknesses, you know?"

"Yeah, we've definitely have learned a lot, but come into my room. I think I know who we're gonna find next."

Amber got up off the couch, dropping the mission files on the coffee table, and walked back into my room. She walked over to my computer and stared at the image popped up on it. "So we're going to save some fish?" Amber said. Spyro looked insulted, and gave her blank stare. "That fish is my friend," he glared.

"Spyro, tell us about him," I said trying to get back on subject.

"He's a Gillmen and his element is water. He grew up in a city at the bottom of an ocean, and he eventually joined the Gillmen Marines. After his girlfriend got kidnapped by pirates, he joined up with the Skylanders," he answered.

"First talking dragons, and now breathing fish. You Skylanders are getting weirder by the second," said Amber.

"Just wait till you see more of them," said Spyro.

"So are we in agreement then? Gill will be the first one we find," I said.

"I guess; there are 29 of them. He's just as good as any to start with," Amber stated. I noticed a grimace forming on Spyro's face. He seemed more excited about getting Gill Grunt than he did when we were rescuing Drobot and Bash. "We better get looking, then," I said. It is not gonna be easy trying to find him. Amber examined the image closer. "Jack, take a look," she said. I looked to where she's pointing on the screen. I noticed a name of a business on a sign in the background. I looked closer, and it's some jewelry shop. "I guess finding it won't be as hard as I thought," I breathed.

"What do you mean?" asked Spyro.

"Look in the back of the picture, there's a business. It's some kind of jewelry shop, if we can find the business; we might be able to get witnesses and maybe access to the security cam footage. We could find more information on these guys. If we're lucky, we could get a view of their license plate with the footage," I said.

"So how long do you think it'll take to find him?" asked Spyro.

"Hopefully a day, maybe two," answered Amber.

"Not too long then, that's good," said Spyro. I dazed at the computer screen thinking about the last few times I saved these Skylanders. It's definitely not something that has been easy. Even at the warehouse when I first met Spyro, there always seem to involve someone wanting to put a bullet in my head.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X  
Domino's POV

I just arrived back in Pensacola a few hours ago; I drove nonstop from the airstrip back home, only stopping to get gas. It was a lonely journey; no one had accompanied me on the trip, so I had no reason to prolong it by stopping. I dropped Amber's car off at her house, and I took a bus back to my own home. It felt strange being back at my house. Ever since I joined Eagle Force, it seems like I spend less time here. With having school 6 hours a day, and piles of work to do, it became only a place I sleep at. I've became a little more distant with my family, but nothing like Jack. We still are a family; I still go to my sister's soccer games and do chores around the house.

When I showed up back at my house it was early morning. My family was still asleep in their rooms. I didn't want to wake any of them up. I was exhausted from the long drive. When I entered the door, I walked into the living room. I dropped my bag and I threw myself on the couch and immediately fell to sleep, not wanting to make the trek to my room.

I woke up about six hours later by my cell phone going off. I reached over and grabbed it off the coffee table, the screen lit up with a text message. The text message is from Dylan, it read "Meet at the place we planned the London mission by 1:00." How did he know I arrived back in Florida? I checked the time on my phone, it's noon. I got up off the couch and took a look around. I noticed that nobody's here at the house, I never got a chance to say hello to my parents or sister. I've been gone over a week, I thought they would want to talk, but they must've had plans today.

I got out of the house and I walked towards my car. I got in and I started it up and drove to the park. I had time, but I had no other arrangements to deal with, plus the park is a little ways from my house and there still is traffic to make it longer. I drove into the parking lot and parked my car. I got out and walked towards the stone picnic table I was at when I planned the London mission with Dylan and the others. I sat down and waited for Dylan. I remembered what Jack told me to do. I still don't like the fact that I have to do recon on Dylan, but at least he's doing some of the work for me by making come here. I know that Amber would've been a better choice. I looked out to the ocean for a little while until I caught glimpse of Dylan and few more members of Eagle Force approaching. Alex and Jayden followed next to him. Jayden Swick is a pilot for Eagle Force, although Dayton is also a pilot, Jayden specializes more in helicopters and providing air support when we have access to it.

"Dylan how did you know I just arrived in Florida?" I asked when they approached.

"I had people watch over your house. What did you think?" he answered bluntly.

"So wait, you spied on my family you asshole?" I shouted as I stood up to confront him.

"Watch who you're talking to Domino, I needed to talk to you in person." spat Dylan who's now pulling rank on me.

"Fine then. Why did you call this meeting?" I asked.

"Take a guess," spat Dylan. I know that Dylan has a bit of a grudge against me since I'm still new to Eagle Force and my tone against him didn't help. I guess I still have to prove myself to him, only if he had been there at the art gallery or the museum. But now he seems to be even more irate. "Everybody is wondering where the hell you, Jack, and Amber have been," Alex shouted.

"What do you mean?"

"He means exactly as he said it. Jack has been gone for over two weeks and you've been there with him. We all know that you three were at Castaway Gallery in Albuquerque, and in the file that was sent to me it says that the Dultras killed 5 people. I don't think it's some coincidence that you three were there," Dylan complained.

"Confidential, Jack's orders," I said.

"Yeah, but Jack is not here. He's starting to forget that his decisions affect all of us. I need to what he's doing because he's gonna get us killed if keeps this up," he shouted.

"So it's okay for you to go to London, and lie to Jack, who's the commander of our team, which I seem to think you're starting to forget," I said.

"Don't forget that you almost went on the mission too Domino," stated Alex.

"Yeah, but I backed out. You could've gotten everyone killed to you know on your mission, but you think it's perfectly okay for to disappear across the world, but Jack isn't allowed to even go across this country," I combatted.

"For the record, I tried to tell Jack, and it wasn't like I wanted to do the mission without telling him. That mission was too important to pass up. The asshole we caught gave sensitive information to the Bloody Rangers that helped them invade the US, remember? If anything, Jack would've been in charge of that mission if he got my message. People like that MI-6 agent ruined my, Dayton's, Alex's, and Jack's lives. Also, Jack authorized the mission when he found out," countered Dylan. He did make me think on how Jack is also going behind Eagle Force's back. I remember how Amber and I got mad about Jack lying to us about the Skylanders. Jack is also using Amber and I without telling anyone, maybe he's no better than Dylan.

I have to think of an answer to give Dylan. I'm in a bad position to lie, the rest of Eagle Force is going to be wondering where Jack is. With him being gone all the way on the other side of the country, and him not giving his whereabouts to Dylan or anyone else in Eagle Force besides Amber and I doesn't help. Also being the newest member to this team also leaves me in a weak position. If Dylan calls my lie, which he might, it'll come back to haunt me. If Amber was here, instead of me, her experience would shield her. "Listen Dylan-," I began to speak until I saw something out in the distance. Dylan noticed my blank stare and he turned his head to where I'm staring. A couple of seconds later both Jayden and Alex turned around. A couple of grey cars pulled into the parking lot at the same time. It struck me as peculiar since the cars are the same make and model. Eight men got out the car, loaded with machine guns.

"Behind the picnic table, now," whispered Dylan who kept his eyes on the armed men. We followed his orders and one of the men spotted us, he alerted the others. They aimed their guns at us and opened fire the moment we all got into cover. Everyone else in the park ran away. Jayden thrust his head lower to the ground as a bullet lodged itself in the stone seat next to his head. I pulled out my gun from my holster and I peered over the table. I noticed the men getting closer, some of them continued to fire on us. When they were about 15 feet away from us they stopped firing. "Make this easy on yourselves, we only want Garter. I've been told that the rest of you can walk away and live, even you Knott, with what you did to us at the art gallery, I personally wouldn't let you live," he shouted, trying to persuade us to get out. These guys are definitely the Dultras. Dylan looked over at me with rage in his eyes. Why do the Dultras want to kill Dylan? Coming after me, I could understand, but the only conflict I had with them was at Castaway Gallery.

None of us took the Dultras offer to let us escape, instead we readied our weapons for battle. "Do you honestly think any of us are going to take that offer?" yelled Alex.

"No, but don't think that we're the only ones here. We have many more men waiting for us to give the signal to come in," the Dultra responded. Everyone waited for the next few minutes, getting ready for the imminent gun battle. Dylan and Alex didn't seem nervous at all, must be due to their years of experience in urban warfare. "Looks like they aren't coming out," said one of the Dultras.

"Fine with me," responded another Dultra.

Dylan peered over the stone picnic table, with his gun at ready and delivered the first shot. The bullet struck the dirt next to one of the Dultras. The Dultras retreated into cover, and began to unload a shower of bullets at us. We don't' have a lot of ammunition between us. Dylan turned his head to us. "Jayden, call Ray and tell him to bring us evac. I'm hoping we can just wait them out," commanded Dylan. Jayden pulled out his cell phone and clicked on Ray's name in his contact list. He attempted to call him, but the call couldn't be made. "Damn it! The call won't go through, I have no signal," said Jayden. I pulled out my cell phone, and I looked in the upper left corner and I didn't have any bars. "Shit, the Dultras are probably jamming the signal," yelled Dylan over the heavy gunfire.

"We need a plan, we'll run out of ammo soon and we under manned," said Jayden.

"Yeah, I know," said Dylan.

I'm crouching at the left side of the stone table and Alex is to my right. Beside him is Jayden and next to him is Dylan. I peered around the corner and saw three of the Dultras hiding in cover, continuing to fire at us. The other five must be on the right side. One of them is hiding behind a large tree, and the other two are using the stone fence that surrounds the entrance to the park. I fired a few shots over at the Dultra hiding behind the tree, I missed. "I have heavy weapons stashed in the back of my car, if we can get to it we can even the playing field," suggested Dylan.

"So how do you propose we get to it?" I asked as I exchanged gunfire with the Dultra.

"I got an idea. Dylan, Jayden provide us cover while Domino and I rush them, we can kill a couple of them and take their cover which will alleviate some of the gunfire on everyone," said Alex. He always did like to take insane risks, kind of like Jack I suppose. "Alright, I'm game," I said. Dylan slid out the magazine in his gun and replaced it with a fresh one. "Alright, here are my keys, try and get to the car first," he said as he handed them to Alex. "Domino we go on three," ordered Alex. I nodded my head and took a deep breath, realizing that we would be going into no man's land. "1…2…3…GO!" yelled Alex. I leaped out of cover, and charged at the Dultra using the tree as cover. I continuously fired my Glock at the Dultra as my made my way towards him. Dylan and Jayden rose from cover and fired at the other Dultras, thus keeping them off our backs. Alex made his way towards another stone picnic table about 20 yards from our original cover. He fired his gun at the Dultra hiding behind the table as he rose from cover and the bullet pierced through his skull.

I'm about halfway to the large tree. The Dultra leaned his body outside of cover, and started to fire aim his gun at me. I quickly dove to the left as the Dultra started firing. As I fell to the ground I aimed my gun at the Dultra's chest and pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped through his body, and he fell to the ground. I grunted as I crashed into the ground. I quickly got up to avoid more gunfire. I got behind the tree, and I picked up the dead Dultra's CPW submachine gun. We now just split the Dultras into three; one part aiming at me, another firing at Dylan and Jayden, and the last firing at Alex. We may have improved our chances of surviving, but not by much.

I peered to right and saw more Dultras arrive, one of them in an armor-plated SUV. I took a few shots over at the Dultras hiding behind the stone fence. The path of the bullets lodged themselves in the fence. I looked over to my right and saw Alex in a gunbattle with four of the Dultras. Some of the Dultras are trying to flank him while he's barely holding them off. I saw clear path to one of the Dultras, I aimed my gun and pulled the trigger. A few of the bullets from the CPW escaped the barrel and embedded themselves in the Dultra's head.

I turned my attention back towards the Dultras I have to face. I have four of them to deal with now. There all behind the stone fence. Three of them jumped the fence and attempted to charge me. I pressed and held the trigger at them and a hail of bullets were sent of over to him, thus emptying the magazine. Two of them fell to the ground. The other one made his way towards me, I didn't catch him in time and he tackled me to the ground. My CPW flew out of my hand and out into the middle of the battlefield. He had my arms under his body, and I struggled to get them out. He brought his pistol towards my forehead. I struggled to grab my Glock from my holster. His finger was about to pull the trigger until a bullet ripped through his head. In shock, I rolled his body off mine, and I looked behind me and I noticed Jayden crouching back into cover.

I pulled out my handgun, and glanced around my cover and saw that the two Dultras I shot were beginning to make their way to cover. I shot one in the back of the neck and he fell to the ground, and the other managed to make their way back to cover. We continued to exchange gunfire; I fired three rounds from my gun and quickly went back into cover when the other two Dultras retaliated. I looked around the tree and quickly sent a round to one of the Dultras who was out of cover. The bullet sliced through his eye and he fell to the ground. One left to go. I peered around my cover and saw the Dultra waiting for me. He sent a barrage of bullets when he noticed me. I went around to the other side, hoping to catch him off guard. I looked around the cover, and shot two more rounds at him, I missed. He retaliated and emptied the rest of his clip at me. At that second I came out of cover and sent a round through his head.

I dashed out of cover of the large tree to the stone fence. I slid into cover and reloaded my pistol; I noticed I only had about 2 clips left and I just slid one of them into my gun. I quickly brought my head into the view of the parking lot, noticing the Dultras hiding behind more cars. I saw Dylan's car which is in the middle of the battlefield in the third row of cars from me. I glanced to my right and noticed Alex coming towards me. "How much ammo do you have left?" I asked when he approached me.

"Not a lot, I didn't have time to pick up a weapon, we need to get to that car soon," he said over the roar of gunfire. I looked over the stone fence and fired a few rounds at the Dultras hiding behind the armor-plated SUV. "Why are they are here?" wondered Alex. He peered over our cover and saw a Dultra hiding behind a blue sedan and fired a few rounds at him. "They said they came here for Dylan, most definitely an assassination. What I'm trying to figure is out is why they're here trying to kill him? When I was back at Castaway Gallery, we ran into them, but today they came for us," I said as I got up and took a few shots at them. I quickly retreated to cover as they retaliated with more gunfire. "Before the London mission Dylan was working on a case involving the Dultras. That certainly would be enough to want to kill him. Why were you at Castaway Gallery anyway?" asked Alex.

"Now's not the time!" I shouted as I got up from cover and fired two rounds at a Dultra who leaned out of cover from the SUV. The bullets pierced through his thigh and his chest, he fell down to the ground. I looked behind and noticed Dylan and Jayden advancing to the stone fence. They both came in carrying a couple assault rifles that they got off the dead bodies of the Dultras. They handed both a gun to me and Alex, I was given an M4. We still need to get to the car, the ammo these guns have won't last. "What's the combat area look like?" asked Dylan.

"There's eight of them, all of them are packing major heat," answered Alex.

"Alright, two per person then," I said. He took a quick peak at the battlefield. "Let's move up, we'll have a better chance if we get close. Alex, go with Domino and Jayden will come with me," commanded Dylan. We nodded our heads, and we hopped the fence. We went towards the left side, while Dylan and Jayden went towards the right. We kept our heads low to avoid the ensuing gunfire. We dashed to the front of a red truck since it was the closest cover. I looked over the truck, and saw three Dultras. They inched our way towards us, moving from cover to cover hoping to flank us. Alex got up and fired a few rounds from his assault rifle at a Dultra who's a few cars ahead of us. He ducked his head before the bullets reached his body. "Got any ideas, we're the closest to the car. I've got less than half a mag in this gun," I said to Alex.

"Switch it to semi-auto, and conserve your ammo," he commanded. He took a quick glance at what's ahead of us. "Alright, we take out one of them and move up and hope for the best," he said. And I thought Jack's plans were insane. "That's your plan; hoping for the best?" I questioned.

"If you have any better ideas, please be my guess," he said sarcastically.

"Well I hope our luck holds out then," he said. I looked around our cover and saw one of the Dultras a couple of rows in front of us. He fired a few rounds at me; I immediately ducked my head and retaliated. I shot three rounds; I shattered the right mirror of the car he is using cover for. He got back up and fired ten rounds at the car. Sparks lit up on the car when the bullets hit the car. I peered around the car and caught a glimpse of the Dultra. I fired a round at him and the bullet sliced through his knee. He fell to the ground, shouting in pain. He's out in the open and I ended his pain by implanting a bullet in his head. "I finished one of them," I said to Alex.

"Alright, get ready to move up. One of them is to your left and the other's to the right. I'll go left, and you go right, okay?" he said as he reloaded his handgun just in case he runs out of ammo in his assault rifle.

"Yeah," I nodded. I leaped over of the car and advanced to the right. I kept myself out in the middle of the battlefield. The Dultra I'm aiming at is now hiding behind Dylan's car. I saw him pop his upper body out of cover, but I didn't have time to get a shot on him. He started to fire rounds at me, luckily none them made their target. I immediately went towards the nearest cover; I slid into a white car. The Dultra is only a row in front of me now. I took a quick look over the cover; I fired a round at him. I missed and the Dultra retaliated by sending another dozen rounds at me. He ducked his head to reload his gun. I took the few seconded opportunity and I dashed towards his position. When my eyes met his I unloaded the rest of what I had left in the M4 and the bullets ripped through his body.

I threw the gun to the ground and I pulled out my handgun. I waited a few more minutes crouching behind the car for Alex to come since he had the keys to the car. After a while I saw Alex come into view. He dashed towards the trunk, not wanting to be out in the open any longer. He dodged a lot the gunfire coming to him from the other side of the parking lot. He carefully unlocked the trunk while crouching and opened it up. "Take a tac vest, and grab all the ammo you can. We need to get out of here as fast as we can. I'll cover you," stated Alex. I quickly got out of cover and looked in the trunk. I took the vest and tossed it behind the car. I grabbed a SCAR-L and all the compatible clips I could carry and immediately got back behind the truck. I put on the tac vest and placed all the clips in the many pockets of the tactical vest. I gave cover fire for Alex, firing rounds over at the other side of the parking. I noticed that more Dultras were there before we advanced into the parking lot, Dylan and Jayden must be under heavy fire. Alex also put on a tactical vest and grabbed an ACR and its ammunition.

A few minutes later I saw Dylan and Jayden shuffling their way back to the car. As soon as they were close to enough, they ran to the car while Alex and I covered him.

"Are you okay?" I asked when they got into cover.

"We're good, a lot more of them showed unexpectedly, it was definitely a firefight," explained Dylan. He and Jayden scavenged the back of his car for weapons and ammo just as Alex and I have done. Dylan grabbed a Remington 870 shotgun and Jayden got a M4A1. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here," said Jayden.

"We're not taking my car; it's shot up to hell because of those Dultras. We'll take the armor-plated car the Dultras left behind if we can get to it, I'll drive," said Dylan.

We followed Dylan's command and started to make our way to the SUV, going from cover to cover. Each of us working together, firing at the other Dultras who now are starting to make their way towards us. I fired a few bullets at one of them, they pierced through his chest. We eventually made it there, still trying to dodge the oncoming fire. I got to the back on the left side of the car. As I was entering I noticed something coming from the distance down the road. "Oh crap, Dylan, start the SUV, NOW!" I yelled. He looked behind and gasped in fear. Everyone got in the car and slammed the door shut. Dylan put the SUV into drive and slammed the petal.

We sped out of the parking lot as the remaining Dultras started to fire at us. White cracks started to form on the windshield. We made our way out onto the main road, dodging some of the traffic. I reloaded my SCAR-L, and I turned my head to the rear and to check the distance between us and the other Dultras, they're catching up to us. I noticed something in the back, I reached and grabbed it, and I knew immediately what it was. "Dylan I just found the cell phone jammer!" I shouted.

"Good, destroy it. Jayden call back Ray, tell him to set up a roadblock," he responded. I rolled down the window and tossed it out. It shattered into pieces as it crashed into the ground. Jayden took his cell phone and began to dial Ray. "Ray it's me, I need you to set up a roadblock. The Dultras are on our ass and we need help," said Jayden into his phone. I looked back and saw that the Dultras are right behind us, a few more cars decided to join the chase. "We're in a black Tahoe," said Jayden. The Dultras inside the cars started to roll down their windows. "You need to make it big Ray, more of them just showed up." They started firing their machine guns at the back window. The window started to form more white cracks all over it; it appeared to be getting weaker. "Alright see you there," said Jayden. He pressed end call on the screen of his phone. "Ray said that he'll set up a roadblock at Geraldson Avenue, it'll take him 15 minutes to get set up. He's getting backup to meet us there," he said.

"Okay, now all we have to do is just survive," said Dylan.

All of the sudden the back window shattered. Dylan swerved the car in shock. A bullet from the Dultras nearly hit Alex in the head as evident by the bullets impacting themselves on the front windshield inside the car. Dylan kept swerving to get out of the line of fire. "Damn it, we need to return fire!" suggested Dylan.

"I'll handle it," I volunteered. I got into the rear of the SUV, making sure to keep my head from the line of fire. Glass from the destroyed rear window is scattered all in the back. I wiped the glass away and brought out my assault rifle. I looked out rear window and I started to fire at the Dultras that are chasing us. It's much harder to aim in a moving vehicle as everyone, including us, kept swerving left and right. My mind went back to the car chase with Jack and Amber in Albuquerque. Except this time we're being chased, and we have more ammo to use. I ducked my head under the window, and slid another clip into my gun. I raised my head back over the cover and started firing at a car that's closest to us. I shot out the left-hand mirror, and they veered to the right. I fired five rounds over at them. The bullets struck the hood and windshield, but they kept driving. They retaliated. I ducked my back down under the window. "Take them out Domino!" yelled Dylan who swerved again.

"If you kept the car steady, I might be able to actually hit something," I combatted.

"Do you need any help back up there?" asked Jayden.

"There's no more room back here," I said as I returned fire back at the Dultras. I destroyed one of their headlights. Jayden and Alex both rolled down their windows. "Domino we'll try and draw some of their fire, hopefully alleviating some of the pressure off you. We won't make it to Geraldson Avenue, if they keep of this kind of fire," said Alex. Jayden and Alex started firing at awkward angles out the window with their assault rifles. Their plan is somewhat successful, I noticed that not all the gunshots are coming at me, but we're still one target in the SUV. All they need is one lucky shot.

I looked back over the window and noticed that the windshield on the closest Dultra's vehicle appeared to be getting weaker. I reloaded my gun with a fresh clip and I switched it from semi-auto to full auto. I waited for a moment to where both cars are steady. I felt SUV stop veering and I looked out the window, and I saw my opportunity. I unloaded the entire my magazine and in less than a few seconds most of the bullets made their mark. The glass shattered all over the Dultras and their driver panicked. He veered the car off the road and onto the sidewalk. He crashed into the side of the building and the frontend of the car look decimated. I'm not sure if anyone inside the car is dead or alive. Everyone took a small cheer and praised me for our small victory, but it didn't matter that much as more Dultras came onto the road.

"Damn it, they just keep coming!" I shouted in rage.

"They really want you dead Dylan," said Alex.

"Really, I haven't noticed," sarcastically said Dylan.

"How much longer until we reach the roadblock?" asked Jayden.

"About another 10 minutes," said Dylan. He made a sharp turn to the left causing the wheels on the right side to lift up into the air. We continued to exchange gunfire for the few minutes. The Dultras kept making it impossible to take any of them out. Their sheer numbers give them the advantage in the chase. Back during the chase in Albuquerque we only had to worry about one car, not five of them. Their firepower is also difficult to overcome. It lessens the time I have to retaliate. I looked back over my cover and fired four rounds at one of the cars chasing us. The shots impacted in the front bumper. I quickly ducked my head back under the window as a shower of bullets came back at me. I got back up and fired another five rounds at one of the Dultras firing back at us. One of the bullets struck his body and he fell limp dangling out of the window, one of the Dultras brought him back into the car. The Dultra in the back seat quickly sent another storm of bullets at me. One of the bullets struck my gun. The impact from the bullet onto my gun stunned my entire body as I fell onto the back. I got back up and checked my gun, the impact rendered it nonoperational. "Damn it, my gun's broke," I shouted.

"Here, take Dylan's shotgun, it's fully loaded," said Alex as he tossed it into the back. I grabbed the shotgun and I peered over the cover to see the many Dultras on our tail.

"We're almost to the roadblock. We have about another couple of miles to go," shouted Dylan as he increased the speed of the SUV. I looked out the back window and I noticed one of the Dultras veering to the right a little bit and they're starting to speed up, they might be trying to cut us off. I have a good aim on his front tire, but I'm not sure if the range of the shotgun will reach it. I brought out the Remington shotgun and aimed it at the wheel. I carefully waited a second to make sure to pull the trigger at just the right moment. The beads from the shotgun slug left the barrel of the gun and traveled to the wheel of the Dultra's car. One of the beads came into the path of the tire and the car began to spin out. The other cars had to swerve out of the way just to avoid getting hit. I duck my head back under the window and I cocked the shotgun to load a new shell into the chamber. Dylan made a sharp right onto another street, the Dultras did the same.

"We're here!" shouted Dylan. At the end of the avenue I saw three cars blocking the street and Ray and a four more members of Eagle Force there. Ray and Scarlett are both carrying SMAW rocket launchers, and the rest of them are carrying M240 SAWs. As soon as we came into view they both fired the rockets, they soared past us leaving a trail of smoke behind them. Each rocket crashed into one of the Dultra's cars. Every one of the Dultras inside those cars were consumed by a blazing inferno. When we got close to the cars, Dylan slammed the brakes and turned the wheel to the right causing our car to come parallel with the roadblock and me to crash into the side of the SUV. Dayton, Aaron, and Dakota started to fire their LMGs at the last remaining car. Jayden and Alex followed suit and fired their assault rifles out the window of the SUV. Bullet holes appeared all over the car, some of them piercing through the armor plating. I saw blood pouring out of the Dultras in the car.

As soon as the carnage was over, Dylan popped the trunk so I could get out. We all took a breath of relief. I pushed the open and I hopped out the SUV. I proceeded over to Scarlett who placed down the rocket launcher on top of the car. "What the hell happened?" she asked.

"The Dultras jumped us at the park, they wanted to kill Dylan," I answered.

"Why?"

"My best guess is because he's working on a case that involves the Dultras, other than that I'm not really sure," I said. It also could due to what Jack is doing for those aliens, it's very clear that the Dultras want the Skylanders, I'm still very unsure of why they want to attack Dylan. Maybe because Dylan is Jack's best friend, or was his best friend. Their relationship has been strained the last few years. But I'm very doubtful about that. Also Dylan hasn't been working the Dultra case in a while because he had been preoccupied with the London and on finding about Jack has been doing across the country. I know the Dultras want us dead, but they never attacked us head on until today.

I turned my head back towards the smoldering wreckage of the two cars. Scarlett came passed the roadblock and came up to my side. "Does it have something to do with what you were doing with Amber and Jack? I remember you and Amber were acting strange when you asked me and Riley to fly back home when we went to give Jack a resupply," she asked with concern. I had a good hold on my shotgun waiting to see if any more Dultras are coming. "I don't know, maybe," I said. Everyone is on edge; we just survived an attack by the Dultras. I noticed Ray handing Dylan another assault rifle. He definitely brought in the big guns.

I looked around and saw everyone getting ready in case of another attack. Ray and Dylan walked up to the car that everyone shot up, checking to see if anyone is alive. No one in that car looked to have any life left. Everyone else had their guns ready, just in case. I still can't believe our luck held out, but I know someday it will run out.

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again, sorry this took a while to upload. I never started until the middle of the month because of homework and laziness on my part. Also the beginning took a while to make. Hopefully next chapter I'll be able to upload faster. Either way, please be epic and leave a review.**


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